Ancient Masterpieces That You Can Touch & Listen to
SEIKILO Museum of Ancient Music is the first interactive museum in the world where visitors can interact with all its exhibition items while guided by professional musicians who dedicated their lives to ancient world music.
Our Collection
Since 4000 BCE
From the home of the Muses.
In the ancient village of Europos, deep in the Greek countryside, a small miracle has been taking place for over a decade. Established in the village of the original “Europeans,” the LUTHIEROS workshop continues its mission of recreating and reintroducing the ancient lyre to the world.
The culmination of this effort was the creation of the SEIKILO World Music Museum Collection, an unparalleled display of extensive research and masterful craftsmanship.
In our collection, the visitor will be able to witness the evolution of the lyre, from the earliest attested forms of the instrument, hailing from Egypt and Mesopotamia, to the original tortoise-shell Greek lyre, to the professional kithara used by antiquity’s virtuoso musicians.
Along with the various lyres, our collection features a plethora of other ancient instruments, each independently crafted with the same attention to research and detail, highlighting the inventiveness and creativity of the ancients.
The SEIKILO Museum of Ancient Music is the only museum of its kind in Greece, featuring a wide variety of ancient instruments, each one painstakingly recreated from ancient sources, such as murals, text descriptions, and pottery. A collection unlike any other awaits your discovery!
The Collection Online
Lyre of Apollo
Apollo has been recognized as the god of Music, Healing and Prophecy, the Sun and Light, Poetry, and more.
According to Plato, humans’ innate ability to delight in music, rhythm, and harmony is the gift of Apollo and the Muses.
There are quite a few mythological accounts regarding Apollo’s lyre. Among the most impressive ones can be found in Ovid’s Heroides, where Apollo built the walls of Troy just by playing his lyre.
Kithara of the Golden Age
Kithara (Latin: cithara) was an advanced musical instrument of Classical Greece used mainly by professional musicians.
It was used in competitions and public performances, including recitations of epic poetry, rhapsodies, odes, lyric songs, etc.
According to some researchers, It bears an advanced spring mechanism that enables the kithara to produce vibrato and portamento.
Monochord of Pythagoras
Named after the famous philosopher, the monochord is an ancient sonometer, ideal to demonstrate the relationship between the frequency of the sound produced by a plucked string, and its length.
“With its single string, movable bridge and graduated rule, the monochord straddled the gap between notes and numbers, intervals and ratios, sense-perception and mathematical reason” Dr. Creese (University of British Columbia).
Lyre of Har Megiddo
King David has been depicted by artists as playing an extraordinary variety of instruments including harps and Greco-Roman lyres (lyres of the Greek god Apollo) that can be seen on the coins of first-century Roman-occupied Judea.
The image appears on one of the famous “Megiddo ivories” that were excavated by archaeologist Gordon Loud, at what are believed to be the remains of a Late Bronze Age royal palace.
Meet the Luthiers
The First Steps
Watch exclusive footage as Master Luthier Anastasios Koumartzis (LUTHIEROS) works on a new experimental barbiton lyre with a movable yoke while recalling his early dreams and first steps as a luthier. Follow him from daydreaming about participating in a minor trade fair in Greece to having an ancient lyre being part of the 2020 Olympic Games Torch Relay.
Dedicate Your Life to a Higher Goal
Exclusive footage from inside the LUTHIEROS workshop, in which Master Luthier Anastasios works on an advanced version of the Lyre of Sarcophagus while talking about the joys that the art of lutherie offers. He explains why a newcomer must be initiated to the art of Lutherie, what makes an instrument produce an amazing sound, and what “musicality” means related to wood.
Sourcing the Right Ingredients
Senior Luthier Jordan Koumartzis (LUTHIEROS) works on a new ancient pandura while discussing how demanding and time-consuming it is to find the right wood for a musical instrument. He talks about the different types of wood, why choosing the right type for different parts is vital, and how a luthier can achieve the right balance between sound and beauty.