Musical Instruments in Mythology

Hey dear community, first of all I would like to welcome you all to my new post and hope you had a day full of great experiences! In this post, I would like to talk a little about mythology and hope you can expand your knowledge.

You can see here some sculptures that have been made of stone and represent figures that use musical instruments and I would like to use these works of art to go into more detail about the mythology and shed light on which important meaning instruments have there. In numerous cultures, instruments have a high value and almost everywhere they are seen as magical objects that had supernatural abilities and often it was considered a way to communicate between different worlds and often it was seen as a gift from the gods. There are interpretations that instruments could deliver the voice of the gods and it was also considered a medium to come into contact with gods or to tame aggressive creatures as in Greek mythology Orpheus who had distracted the hell dog Cerberus, who is also known as the protector of the underworld, with the help of his lyre. With the help of his lyre, it was even possible to get the dog to sleep so that he could enter the underworld undisturbed and in general Orpheus had the ability to tame animals with his music or even make objects float. Some gods are also often regarded as protectors of music and typically the god of light or arts Apollo is represented with a lyre that Hermes had made for him and another good example is the god of the forest Pan who had the ability to magically attract creatures with his flute and so he could enchant the animals or nymphs of the forest with his sounds.

Some gods also used instruments as a method of communication such as the messenger of the gods Hermes who transferred news with it and in other cultures sounds of instruments were also used to initiate festivals or other things like warlike conflicts and was particularly interesting for these purposes was the horn which was also used as a drinking vessel. In the Middle Ages, instruments were also used to initiate festivities and in numerous cultures people already knew that people could also be healed with the sounds and so numerous instruments were used to heal poeple and instruments were also of great importance for ritual purposes. The Egyptians were also already very creative when it comes to the creation of instruments that were of great importance for contact with gods or entertainment purposes and the various instruments were often linked to the different voices of the gods. In some cultures there are even legends that people could control the weather with the help of instruments and create thunderstorms or rain and these were just a few examples and it can be said that musical instruments have shaped the mythology of almost every culture and you will find numerous legends in which traces of music instruments can be found.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you could learn something new about mythology! I captured these pictures with my Camera Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens!