Tympanon

The tympanon (tympanum in Latin) was the most popular frame-drum in ancient Greek music, producing a loud rumbling sound not far from the sound of the orchestral timpani drums today. This percussion instrument was played mainly by women on various spiritual and festive occasions and often accompanied Greek dance in public processions. The Greek comedy playwright Aristophanes (c. 460 - c. 380 BCE) opens his Lysistrata with the heroine’s quibble about women’s overt enthusiasm for festive gatherings when the torrent of their tympana would block the roads. Women across the Greek world used to play the tympanon to worship various deities of Greek mythology, particularly the major goddesses like Rhea, Demeter, Artemis, or Cybele who presided over fertility, marriage, and motherhood. From around the 7th century BCE onwards, the Great Mother’s rituals and mysteries were interlaced with the rites of Dionysos, the god of wine and the source of its reviving powers, and the tympanon began to represent both divinities in Greek art and culture.