Of stringed instruments much has already been said incidentally. As to the different sizes, and different kinds of Lyre, Aristides Quintilianus classifies them in the following manner:—First, the parent Lyre, as the most masculine, on account of its low and rough tones. This was therefore the largest kind of Lyre, and probably was often on a stand, as its name agrees with that of a fixed star. Next to it, the Kithara, as a little less low and rough, but not differing materially from the Lyre. The Kithara was a portable instrument, and as the quality of yielding low sounds must depend mainly upon length of string, it may be ranked as rather less in size than the Lyre proper. It is now indistinguishable from the Phorminx, which was also portable; but a third kind, the Chelys, derives its name from its having had a shell back. Aristides passes on from the Kithara to the Polyphthongos, “or many-sounding” Lyre. This is elsewhere termed the Polychordon, or “many-stringed,” and is equivalent to the Barbitos, a or Asiatic Lyre. Anacreon preferred instruments of many strings, and he refers to the Barbitos, as of the lyre kind. We know that Greek lyres had not attained to many strings in his time. Horace likewise alludes to the Barbitos as a Lesbian instrument, and devotes it to the hands of Polyhymnia.—(Ode i.)