Comments : Mytilene were especially specialised on the hectés or sixth stater. The archaic series electrum late and would succeed in a complete mint billon representing two heads of cattle clashed. The series with incus setback would be the oldest and dates back the years 500-450 BC These coins whose production would begin after 450 BC is a symmachique coinage between Mytilene and Phocaea. The manufacture of species should be alternated two years in two years between the two cities and is Mytilini that began hitting the species. Often the quality of the metal is weak and corrupt. This series with the head of Apollo seems much larger and later.
History : The island of Lesbos is located in front of the western coast of Asia Minor, at the entrance of the Gulf of Adramyteion at the mouth of the Hellespont. Mytilene, on the eastern side of the island facing the mainland, was the main city. It's important coinage electrum begin at the end of the sixth century or in the early years of the fifth century BC This coinage electrum continues after the arrival of Alexander the Great in Asia Minor around 330 BC.
Box lyres: were widespread in the ancient Middle East. Giant lyres placed on the ground and played by seated musicians appear in Sumerian reliefs (3rd millennium BC); some exceeded 40 inches (100 cm) in height, although smaller lyres were also used. Typically ornamented with a carved bull on one side, the Sumerian lyres were played in upright position with the fingers of both hands. They were asymmetrical, having one longer arm.
Small asymmetrical lyres predominated after Sumerian times. Most were held vertically or at an angle and were played with a plectrum; Babylonia also had a small horizontally held lyre. Egyptian lyres included (from c. 2000 BC) an asymmetrical, plectrum-plucked instrument held horizontally and (from c. 1000 BC) a smaller symmetrical lyre played upright. The Hebrew kinnor was also a box lyre. Except for the Sumerian instruments, the Middle Eastern and Greek lyres were tuned by thong or cloth bulges into which the ends of the strings were wound and which could be shifted or tightened to increase string tension. Sumerian lyres were tuned by wooden wedges inserted into the winding bulges.
As an attribute of Apollo, the god of prophecy and music, the lyre to the ancient Greeks symbolized wisdom and moderation. Greek lyres fell into two types, exemplified by the lyra and kithara. The kithara was apparently of Asiatic origin, the lyra either indigenous or of Syrian provenance. Both shared the same playing technique, tuning, and stringing, the number of strings varying from 3 or 4 in Homer’s time to as many as 12 by the 5th century BC; the classical number was 7. Normally used to accompany singing, they were played by a plectrum held in the right hand, the left-hand fingers damping unwanted notes and occasionally plucking or stopping a string to produce a higher note. In solo playing, both hands apparently plucked with the fingers. The lyra was the instrument of the amateur, the kithara, of the professional singer. Latinized to “cithara,” it was adopted by the Romans.
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