Lyre in the context of "Hope (Watts)"

The Homeric Hymns (Ancient Greek: Ὁμηρικοὶ ὕμνοι, romanised: Homērikoì húmnoi) are a collection of thirty-three ancient Greek hymns and one epigram. The hymns praise deities of the Greek pantheon and retell mythological stories, often involving a deity's birth, their acceptance among the gods on Mount Olympus, or the establishment of their cult. In antiquity, the hymns were generally, though not universally, attributed to the poet Homer: modern scholarship has established that most date to the seventh and sixth centuries BCE, though some are more recent and the latest, the Hymn to Ares, may have been composed as late as the fifth century CE.

The Homeric Hymns share compositional similarities with the Iliad and the Odyssey, also traditionally attributed to Homer. They share the same artificial literary dialect of Greek, are composed in dactylic hexameter, and make use of short, repeated phrases known as formulae. It is unclear how far writing, as opposed to oral composition, was involved in their creation. They may initially have served as preludes to the recitation of longer poems, and have been performed, at least originally, by singers accompanying themselves on a lyre or another stringed instrument. Performances of the hymns may have taken place at sympotic banquets, religious festivals and royal courts.

An ode (from Ancient Greek: ᾠδή, romanized: ōidḗ) is a type of lyric poetry, with its origins in Ancient Greece. Odes are elaborately structured poems praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally. A classic ode is structured in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode. Different forms such as the homostrophic ode and the irregular ode also enter.

Greek odes were originally poetic pieces performed with musical accompaniment. As time passed on, they gradually became known as personal lyrical compositions whether sung (with or without musical instruments) or merely recited (always with accompaniment). The primary instruments used were the aulos and the lyre (the latter was the most revered instrument to the ancient Greeks).

An anachronism (from the Greek ἀνά ana, 'against' and χρόνος khronos, 'time') is a chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time periods. The most common type of anachronism is an object misplaced in time, but it may be a verbal expression, a technology, a philosophical idea, a musical style, a material, a plant or animal, a custom, or anything else associated with a particular period that is placed outside its proper temporal domain.

An anachronism may be either intentional or unintentional. Intentional anachronisms may be introduced into a literary or artistic work to help a contemporary audience engage more readily with a historical period. Anachronism can also be used intentionally for purposes of rhetoric, propaganda, comedy, or shock. Unintentional anachronisms may occur when a writer, artist, or performer is unaware of differences in technology, terminology and language, customs and attitudes, or even fashions between different historical periods and eras.

Greek lyric is the body of lyric poetry written in dialects of Ancient Greek.Lyric poetry is, in short, poetry to be sung accompanied by music, traditionally a lyre.It is primarily associated with the early 7th to the early 5th centuries BC, sometimes called the "Lyric Age of Greece", but continued to be written into the Hellenistic and Imperial periods.

The kithara (Greek: κιθάρα, romanized: kithára), Latinized as cithara, was an ancient Greek musical instrument in the yoke lutes family. It was a seven-stringed professional version of the lyre, which was regarded as a rustic, or folk instrument, appropriate for teaching music to beginners. As opposed to the simpler lyre, the cithara was primarily used by professional musicians, called kitharodes. In modern Greek, the word kithara has come to mean "guitar"; etymologically, the word guitar derives from kithara.

Pythagoreanism originated in the 6th century BC, based on and around the teachings and beliefs held by Pythagoras and his followers, the Pythagoreans. Pythagoras established the first Pythagorean community in the ancient Greek colony of Kroton, in modern Calabria (Italy) circa 530 BC. Early Pythagorean communities spread throughout Magna Graecia.

Already during Pythagoras's life it is likely that the distinction between the akousmatikoi ("those who listen"), who is conventionally regarded as more concerned with religious, and ritual elements, and associated with the oral tradition, and the mathematikoi ("those who learn") existed. The ancient biographers of Pythagoras, Iamblichus (c. 245 – c. AD 325) and his master Porphyry (c. 234 – c. AD 305) seem to make the distinction of the two as that of 'beginner' and 'advanced'. As the Pythagorean cenobites practiced an esoteric path, like the mystery schools of antiquity, the adherents, akousmatikoi, following initiation became mathematikoi. It is wrong to say that the Pythagoreans were superseded by the Cynics in the 4th century BC, but it seems to be a distinction mark of the Cynics to disregard the hierarchy and protocol, ways of initiatory proceedings significant for the Pythagorean community; subsequently did the Greek philosophical traditions become more diverse. The Platonic Academy was arguably a Pythagorean cenobitic institution, outside the city walls of Athens in the 4th century BC. As a sacred grove dedicated to Athena, and Hecademos (Academos). The academy, the sacred grove of Academos, may have existed, as the contemporaries seem to have believed, since the Bronze Age, even pre-existing the Trojan War. Yet according to Plutarch it was the Athenian strategos (general) Kimon Milkiadou (c. 510 – c. 450 BC) who converted this, "waterless and arid spot into a well watered grove, which he provided with clear running-tracks and shady walks". Plato lived almost a hundred years later, circa 427 to 348 BC. On the other hand, it seems likely that this was a part of the re-building of Athens led by Kimon Milkiadou and Themistocles, following the Achaemenid destruction of Athens in 480–479 BC during the war with Persia. Kimon is at least associated with the building of the southern Wall of Themistocles, the city walls of ancient Athens. It seems likely that the Athenians saw this as a rejuvenation of the sacred grove of Academos.

In Greek mythology, Clio (traditionally /ˈklaɪoʊ/, but now more frequently /ˈkliːoʊ/; Greek: Κλειώ), also spelled Kleio, Сleio, or Cleo, is the muse of history, or in a few mythological accounts, the muse of lyre-playing.