- chapter 46: Music and musical instruments in Etruria –
something that is very unusual in Greek ones. Additionally Etruscan images often show
instruments conical in shape. This has caused a debate whether the Etruscans had auloi
with conical bores in addition to the ones with cylindrical bores, or if the conical shapes
are just freer depictions of instruments with fl ared ends.^16
Air-reed instruments rarely appear in Etruria and only in images.^17 The earliest
known depiction of a syrinx, or panpipe, from Etruria proper is found in the Tomba dei
Giocolieri in Tarquinia the paintings of which are dated to the end of the sixth century
bce.^18 The instrument also appears on situlae from north Italy dated to approximately
the same time.^19 An air-reed instrument that is even rarer and occurs exclusively in the
Late Etruscan period is the traversal fl ute. It can be seen most clearly on a cinerary urn
from Tomba dei Volumni in Perugia but also possibly occurs on three urns from Volterra.^20
String instrumentsThe only string instruments that were widely depicted in Etruria were members of the
lyre-family; we lack evidence for harps or lutes.^21 Physical remains of lyres have been
found in Greece and Magna Graecia but not in Etruria.^22 One of the earliest depictions of
a lyre in Etruria can be found on an amphora painted by the Heptachord painter in the
fi rst half of the seventh century bce^23 and lyres appear continuously in Etruscan art all
the way to the Roman period. They come in a variety of forms and there exist differing
opinions among modern scholars on how to divide them into sub-types. The problem is
especially pronounced when dealing with Archaic depiction of lyres, where the amount
of realism in the images can be questioned. Four relatively distinct types of lyres will be
mentioned here: the cylinder kithara, the chelys lyra, the barbiton and the concert kithara.^24
The cylinder kithara is a round bottom kithara^25 with peculiar cylindrical or quasi-
cylindrical features placed where the arms meet the body of the instrument.^26 The
instrument also appears in Greece and Anatolia but was not as long-lived there as it was
in Etruria.^27 The chelys lyra’s (Fig. 46.6) most defi ning characteristic is its soundboard,
Figure 46.6 Drawing of a chelys lyra in Tomba dei Leopardi, Tarquinia.