Lectionary Calendar
Monday, December 23rd, 2024
the Fourth Week of Advent
Attention!
Tired of seeing ads while studying? Now you can enjoy an "Ads Free" version of the site for as little as 10¢ a day and support a great cause!
Click here to learn more!

Bible Encyclopedias
Chelys

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

Search for…
or
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z
Prev Entry
Chelyabinsk
Next Entry
Chemical Action
Resource Toolbox
Additional Links

(Gr. xO¦vs, tortoise; Lat. testudo), the common lyre of the ancient Greeks, which had a convex back of tortoiseshell or of wood shaped like the shell. The word chelys was used in allusion to the oldest lyre of the Greeks which was said to have been invented by Hermes. According to tradition he was attracted by sounds of music while walking on the banks of the Nile, and found they proceeded from the shell of a tortoise across which were stretched tendons which the wind had set in vibration (Homeric Hymn to Hermes, 47-51). The word has been applied arbitrarily since classic times to various stringed instruments, some bowed and some twanged, probably owing to the back being much vaulted. Kircher (Musurgia, i. 486) applied the name of chelys to a kind of viol with eight strings. Numerous representations of the chelys lyre or testudo occur on the Greek vases, in which the actual tortoiseshell is depicted; a good illustration is given in Le Antichita di Ercolano (vol. i. pl. 43). Propertius (iv. 6) calls the instrument the lyra testudinea. Scaliger (on Manilius, Astronomicon, Proleg. 420) was probably the first writer to draw attention to the difference between chelys and cithara. (K. S.)

Bibliography Information
Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Chelys'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/​encyclopedias/​eng/​bri/​c/chelys.html. 1910.
 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile