Cretan lyra

Musical instrument Various models of the Cretan lyra at the museum of Greek traditional instruments, Athens.String instrumentOther namesCretan lyra/lira, Aegean lyraHornbostel–Sachs classification321.321-71(Necked bowl lute sounded by a bow)Developed10th century AD (est)Related instruments Byzantine lyra, the ancestor of the Cretan lyra Calabrian lira (Italian: Lira Calabrese) Classical kemençe, (Turkish: Armudî kemençe, Greek: Politiki lyra) Gadulka (Bulgarian: Гъдулка) Lira da braccio Rabāb (Arabic الرباب) Lijerica Violin Musicians Andreas Rodinos Alekos Karavitis Antonis Papadakis (Kareklas) Kostas Mountakis Nikos Xilouris Psarantonis Ross Daly Yiorgos Kaloudis Thanassis Skordalos Georgia Dagaki The Cretan lyra (Greek: Κρητική λύρα) is a pear-shaped three-stringed Greek lyra, a traditional musical instrument, central to the traditional music of Crete and other islands in the Dodecanese and the Aegean Archipelago, in Greece. The Cretan lyra is considered to be the most popular surviving form of the medieval Byzantine lyra, an ancestor of most European bowed instruments. Playing style The lyra is held vertically on the player's lap, in the same way as