What’s with all the lyres?

The following was borrowed from Furniture Library. https://www.furniturelibrary.com/the-lyre-sweet-harmonies/

“Like many other decorative symbols that hail from the Greco-Roman Mediterranean world — urns, acanthus leaves, swags, skulls, rosettes, laurel wreaths, and so on — the lyre decorated interior and exterior walls of Renaissance palaces and villas. The shape remained constant: vertical “strings” sitting between two parallel arms that gracefully curve in, then out.

This particular musical instrument as furniture ornament came into its own a few hundred years later. During the late Neoclassic period, the lyre in fact became such a three-dimensional, large-scale component of tables and chairs, it wouldn’t be surprising if men and women didn’t try to pluck a few bars for their guests just to test the ancient myths.

The lyre wasn’t simply a painted or inlaid image timidly placed on some furniture surface. Instead, New York cabinetmakers like Charles-Honoré Lannuier and Duncan Phyfe seemed to have borrowed Apollo’s magical instrument itself to support the top of a card table or the back of a chair’s occupant. Interpreted through fine carvings, rich mahogany, and lustrous gilding, these sculptural lyres dominated the furniture they adorned, undoubtedly delighting domestic gatherings.

Craftsmen and clients alike were all mesmerized by the lyre whose symbolic harmony was a central value of the Greek Revival in early 19th century America. The young country was eager to emulate the ancient Greek republic and its democratic spirit.”