thumb|right|180px|[[Lécythe à fond blanc représentant une Muse jouant de la lyre, v.&nbsp;430 av. J.-C., Staatliche Antikensammlungen (Munich)]]

La '''lyre''' est l'un des instruments à cordes pincées les plus populaires des civilisations antiques. Les représentations qui nous sont parvenues ont les formes les plus variées. La caractéristique principale est la caisse de résonance qui est très étroite, ce qui rend l'instrument beaucoup plus facile à transporter. Le nombre de cordes, très limité (de 5 à 8), réduisait l'instrument à un rôle d'accompagnement du médiévales sont beaucoup plus des allégories que le témoignage d'une réelle utilisation, du moins après le . Cependant son utilisation s'est poursuivie en Europe du Nord, au moins jusqu'au . 

* Dimensions génériques :
**Longueur totale : 74 cm 
**Longueur de la corde vibrante : 55 cm 
**Largeur de la caisse : 24 cm 
**Épaisseur de la caisse : 5 cm

Selon la carapace de tortue qu'il perce pour y fixer des roseaux d'où partent sept cordes en boyaux de brebis ; l'ensemble est recouvert d'une peau de bœuf et se joue avec un plectre<ref> : ''à Hermès I'', 41-53.</ref>. Hermès céda ensuite sa lyre à Apollon<ref>''Hymne à Hermès I'', 490-502.</ref>.

thumb|[[Lyre de clarinette]] Sur les instruments joués en extérieur, en particulier les instruments dits d'Harmonie-fanfare, on dispose d'un support de partitions appelé aussi Lyre; il s'agit d'une pince dont le fond plat est une plaque en forme de lyre. La liaison avec l'instrument diffère: rapportée sur la cuivres; pour les flûtes traversières il s'agit d'une sangle serrée sur l'avant bras gauche. La lyre reste cependant un accessoire non fourni lors de l'achat d'un instrument.

{{Infobox Instrument
|name=  Lyre
|names=
|image=Mousai Helikon Staatliche Antikensammlungen Schoen80 n1.jpg
|caption=Greek vase with muse playing the phorminx, a type of lyre
|classification=
*string instrument
|range=
|related= 
* Çeng 
* Konghou
* Harp
* Chang (instrument)
}}
The  '''lyre''' is a stringed musical instrument well known for its use in Ancient Greeks were accompanied by lyre playing. The lyre of Classical Antiquity was ordinarily played by being strummed with a plectrum, like a guitar or a zither, rather than being plucked, like a harp. The fingers of the free hand silenced the unwanted strings in the chord.

==Classification==
Lyres from various times and places are regarded by some organologists (specialists in the history of musical instruments) as a branch of the psalteries, not just zithers.

Others view the lyre and Welsh crwth, which have both fingerboards and frameworks above their resonators.  

One point on which organologists universally agree is that the distinction between Scottish and Irish harps can be held on the lap, while some ancient Sumerian lyres appear to have been as tall as a seated man (see Kinsky; also Sachs, ''History'' ..., under "References"). Regarding the number of strings, the standard 88-key piano has many more strings than even the largest harp.

==Construction==
140px|thumb|right|Women posing as a [[Siren with a lyre in 1913.]]
A classical lyre has a hollow body or sound-chest (also known as soundbox or resonator). Extending from this sound-chest are two raised arms, which are sometimes hollow, and are curved both outward and forward. They are connected near the top by a crossbar or yoke. An additional crossbar, fixed to the sound-chest, forms the bridge which transmits the vibrations of the strings. The deepest note was that farthest from the player's body; as the strings did not differ much in length, more weight may have been gained for the deeper notes by thicker strings, as in the gut. They were stretched between the yoke and bridge, or to a tailpiece below the bridge. There were two ways of tuning: one was to fasten the strings to pegs which might be turned; the other was to change the place of the string upon the crossbar; probably both expedients were used simultaneously.
150px|thumb|left|Statue of the  [[Twelve Olympians|Olympian deity, Apollo holding a lyre.]]
According to ancient horns. Lyres were associated with Dionysian pipes and aulos, both of which represented ecstasy and celebration.

Locales in southern Europe, western Asia, or north Africa have been proposed as the historic birthplace of the genus. The instrument is still played in north-eastern parts of Africa.

Some of the cultures using and developing the lyre were the Aeolian and Ionian Greek colonies on the coasts of Asia (ancient Asia Minor, modern day Turkey) bordering the Lydian empire. Some mythic masters like Orpheus, Musaeus, and Thamyris were believed to have been born in Thrace, another place of extensive Greek colonization.
The name ''kissar'' (kithara) given by the ancient Greeks to Egyptian box instruments reveals the apparent similarities recognized by Greeks themselves. The cultural peak of ancient Egypt, and thus the possible age of the earliest instruments of this type, predates the 5th century classic Greece.
This indicates the possibility that the lyre might have existed in one of Greece's neighboring countries, either Thrace, Lydia, or Egypt, and was introduced into Greece at pre-classic times.

==Number of strings on the classical lyre==
The number of strings on the classical lyre varied at different epochs, and possibly in different localities – four, seven and ten having been favorite numbers. They were used without a bow possible, the flat sound-board being an insuperable impediment. The plectrum, however, was in constant use. It was held in the right hand to set the upper strings in vibration; when not in use, it hung from the instrument by a ribbon. The fingers of the left hand touched the lower strings (presumably to silence those whose notes were not wanted). 

There is no evidence as to the stringing of the Greek lyre in the heroic age. Plutarch says that Olympus and Terpander used but three strings to accompany their recitation. As the four strings led to seven and eight by doubling the tetrachord, so the trichord is connected with the hexachord or six-stringed lyre depicted on so many archaic Greek vases. The accuracy of this representation cannot be insisted upon, the vase painters being little mindful of the complete expression of details; yet one may suppose their tendency would be rather to imitate than to invent a number. It was their constant practice to represent the strings as being damped by the fingers of the left hand of the player, after having been struck by the plectrum which he held in the right hand. Before Greek civilization had assumed its historic form, there was likely to have been great freedom and independence of different localities in the matter of lyre stringing, which is corroborated by the antique use of the chromatic (half-tone) and enharmonic (quarter-tone) tunings pointing to an early exuberance, and perhaps also to an Asiatic bias towards refinements of intonation.

==Modern Greece==
While the lyre is no longer played in modern Greece, the term ''lyra'' lives on as the name shared by various regional types of fiddles (bowed lutes) found throughout the country. There are two basic styles of lyra fiddles: 1) a pear-shaped instrument with a vaulted back which is found in the Greek islands – in particular, the Dodecanese and Macedonia and Cretan lyra is traditionally played in a duo with the ''laouto,'' a long-neck fretted lute that is strummed like a guitar.

==Central and Northern Europe==

thumb|152px|left|Reproduction of the lyre from the royal burial at [[Sutton Hoo, late 6th/early 7th century AD]]