{{Short description|Kind of clapper used in religious dances in classical antiquity}} {{for|a Catholic liturgical clapper|Crotalus (liturgy)}} [[File:Red-figure mug with dancer and flute-player (Boston MFA 00.339).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|A dancer performs with ''crotala'', accompanied by a flute player. Athenian red-figure mug attributed to the Brygos Painter, c. 480 BC.<ref>Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, [https://collections.mfa.org/objects/153810/ inv. 00.339].</ref>]] [[Image:Crotalum, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.gif|thumb|right|Illustration taken from the drawing of an ancient marble in Spon's ''Miscellanea'',<ref>sec. i art. vi fig. 43</ref> representing one of the ''crotalistriae'' performing.]]
In classical antiquity, a '''crotalum''', (κρόταλον ''krotalon'')<ref>{{LSJ|kro/talon|κρόταλον|ref}}.</ref> plural '''crotala''', was a kind of clapper or castanet used in religious dances by groups in ancient Greece and elsewhere, including the Korybantes.<ref>{{WD1913|title=Crotalum}}</ref><ref name="OED">{{OED|crotalum}}</ref>
The term has been erroneously supposed by some writers to be the same as the sistrum. These mistakes are refuted at length by Friedrich Adolph Lampe (1683–1729) in ''De cymbalis veterum''.<ref>i.4, 5, 6</ref> From the ''Suda'' and the Scholiast on Aristophanes (''Nubes'', 260), it appears to have been a split reed or cane, which clattered when shaken with the hand. According to Eustathius (''Il.'' XI.160), it was made of shell and brass, as well as wood. Clement of Alexandria attributes the instruments invention to the Sicilians, and forbids the use thereof to the Christians, because of the motions and gestures accompanying the practice.<ref name="GRA">{{SmithDGRA|title=Crotalum}}</ref><ref name="cycl">{{Cyclopaedia 1728}}</ref> [[File:Attic red figure pelike Rhodes.jpg|thumb|left|Afterlife scene of a woman playing crotalum clappers leading a man playing a barbitos lyre.]] Women who played on the crotalum were termed ''crotalistriae''. Such was Virgil's Copa (2),
:''Crispum sub crotalo docta movere latus.''
This line alludes to the dance with crotala (similar to castanets), for which we have the additional testimony of Macrobius (''Saturnalia'' III.14.4‑8).<ref name="GRA"/>
As the instrument made a noise somewhat like that of a crane's bill, the bird was called ''crotalistria'', "player on crotala".<ref name="cycl"/>
Pausanias affirms by way of the epic poet Pisander of Camirus that Heracles did not kill the birds of Lake Stymphalia, but that he drove them away by playing on crotala. Based on this, the instrument must be exceedingly ancient.<ref name="cycl"/><ref>Pausan. Arcad. lib. viii</ref><ref>Wilkinson, John Gardner (1878). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=lIh97OdZxFcC The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians]''. Vol 1. London: John Murray. p. 494.</ref>
The word ''krotalon'' is often applied, by an easy metaphor, to a noisy talkative person (Aristoph. ''Nub.'' 448; Eurip. ''Cycl.'' 104).<ref name="GRA"/>
==Gallery== :''See: Cymbalum'' The instrument continued to be used in a modified form through the early medieval period. The variant illustrated in the Byzantine and Carolingian Empires consisted of a forked stick with cymbals attached to the ends. <gallery> File:Pedieus Painter ARV 86 5 dancing maenad with krotala (01).jpg|Circa 520-510 B.C., Athens. Dancing maenad with krotala. File:Krotala player, from the Mosaic of the Female Musicians, Mariamin.jpg|4th century A.D., Byzantine Empire. Krotala player, from the Mosaic of the Female Musicians, Mariamin. The crotala and cymbala were played by musicians in the same group. File:Maenads dancing in Dionysus's Procession from a 4th century mosiac in Augusta Traiana, Byzantine Empire, now Stara Zagora, Bulgaria.jpg|4th century A.D. Mosaic from the city of Augusta Traiana showing maenads dancing with Dionysus, playing krotalum and cymbalum (finger cymbals) . File:Aeman holding clappers in the Charles the Bald Bible, illustrated by Master C.jpg|9th century A.D., Carolingian Empire. Aeman playing crotals, showing a blending of ancient traditions in the medieval period; in the Carolingian Renaissance, the Roman ''cymbala'' cymbals were attached to "forked sticks" to make the crotals.<ref name=MarcuseCymbala>{{cite book |first=Sibyl |last=Marcuse |title=A Survey of Musical Instruments |publisher=Harper & Row |place=New York |date=1975 |entry= Cymbala|page=137}}</ref><ref name=MarcuseCrotal>{{cite book |first=Sibyl |last=Marcuse |title=A Survey of Musical Instruments |publisher=Harper & Row |place=New York |date=1975 |entry= Crotal|page=133 |quote= small metal cymbals attached to a hinged fork or forked sticks, used in ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome and apparently also in the early middle ages...}}</ref> </gallery>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Greek musical instruments}}
Category:Ancient Greek musical instruments Category:Culture of ancient Rome Category:Greek musical instruments Category:European percussion instruments