Greek and Latin Texts on the Harp and Similar Instruments in Byzantine Times

Abstract

In Byzantine sources, both literary and iconographic, the harp occurs surprisingly seldom. Harpa as a term for a musical instrument is first encountered in Venantius Fortunatus. It is usually translated as ‘harp’, but at that time it most likely meant a lyre. Since the Carolingian Renaissance – when in the West often the harp, in Byzantium the psaltery gradually took the place of the lyre – the old name apparently passed to the new instrument, as similarly in the cases of cithara and ψαλτήριον. The name harpa was apparently adopted into Greek only at the end of the 14th century under Italian influence. Πλινθίον probably referred to the rectangular psaltery in Byzantium. Ἀχιλλιακόν may have meant a rare instrument in Byzantium, probably due to a misunderstanding of our Fortunatus passage.