View source for Phorminx

{{Short description|Type of musical instrument}}
{{Italics title}}
:''Phorminx is also a [[genus]] of [[cylindrical bark beetles]].''

[[Image:939b2.jpg|thumb|upright|A ''phorminx'']]
The '''''phorminx''''' ({{langx|grc|φόρμιγξ}}) was one of the oldest of the Ancient Greek stringed [[Musical instrument|musical instruments]], in the [[yoke lutes]] family, intermediate between the [[lyre]] and the [[kithara]]. It consisted of two to seven strings, richly decorated arms and a crescent-shaped sound box. It most probably originated from [[Mesopotamia]]. While it seems to have been common in [[Homer]]'s day<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bundrick |first1=Sheramy |title=Music and Image in Classical Athens |date=2005 |publisher=CUP |location=Google Books |isbn=9780521848060 |page=25-26 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KgSuo-A3cO8C&q=Phorminx}}</ref> accompanying the [[rhapsode]]s, it was supplanted in historical times by the seven-stringed kithara. Nevertheless, the term "''phorminx''" continued to be used as an [[archaism]] in poetry.

The term "''phorminx''" is also sometimes used in both ancient and modern writing to refer to all four instruments of the lyre family collectively:

*[[Barbiton|Barbitos]]
*[[Kithara]]
*[[Lyre]]

<gallery>
File:Zaragoza - Museo - Estela de Valpalmas.jpg|1250-750 B.C., [[Zargoza]], Spain. Lyre in Spain similar to phorminx, engraved on the Funerary stela of Valpamas.
</gallery>

==References==
{{reflist|25em}}

==External links==
*[http://homoecumenicus.com/ancient_instruments.htm Ancient Greek Instruments], Homo Ecumenicus

{{Greek musical instruments}}

[[Category:Ancient Greek musical instruments]]
[[Category:Lyres]]


{{Lyre-stub}}