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description: Morphology: Cretan Lyra Location: Crete(comma) Greece Culture: Greek Dates: 19th-20th century Description: The common Cretan lyra is a three stringed violin-like instrument played with a bow. It consists of a pear shaped body with two semi-circular sound holes. The body and neck were traditionally carved out of a single piece of aged wood. The common lyra is central to the traditional music of various Greek islands(comma) including Crete(comma) and might date back over 600 years with little alteration. Unlike the violin(comma) the lyra is played vertically with the bottom of the body placed on the thigh and the strings are pressed with the finger nail instead of the pad of the finger. Traditionally(comma) lyras were played with a bow(comma) or arc(comma) that often had bells(comma) or gerakokoudouna(comma) to create a companion sound for the string instrument.