Museum of musical instruments “Thirathen”

This guide to the Museum of Musical Instruments Thirathen in Heraklion traces the name itself, a word ancient Greek scholars used for learning that arrived from outside the church, and the instruments that earned it: lutes from Constantinople, kanuns and sitars carried by refugees from Asia Minor, Ottoman-built drums and clackers. It follows how the collection began in 2012 in the mountain village of Krousonas before moving into this restored neoclassical house in Heraklion. Traveling musicians once carried lutes and lyres like these from village to village, tuning them by ear before a wedding or a wake.