O.E.Payne.Worship.Wars.with.Singers.and.Lyre.Players

Psallo does not define A lyre-players.  Gellius used a different word.

psal-tikos , ē, on, A.of or for harp playing, ps. organon a stringed instrument, Ath.14.634f (of the magadis）; andra psaltikēn agathon a good harpist

Ath. 14.35 And when, after this, Aemilianus said,—But, my good friend [hetaire] Masurius, I myself, often, being a lover of music,

erast-ēs paidōn eager for children, Id.Supp.1088 ;
turn my thoughts to the instrument which is called the magadis, and cannot decide whether I am to think that it was a species of flute or some kind of harp. For that sweetest of poets, Anacreon, says somewhere or other—
I hold my magadis and sing,
    Striking [psallō] loud the twentieth string,
    O Leucaspis, as the rapid hour
    Leads you to youth's and beauty's flower.

But Ion of Chios, in his Omphale, speaks of it as if it were a species of flute, in the following words—
And let the Lydian flute, the magadis,
Breathe its sweet sounds, and lead the tuneful song.

And Aristarchus the grammarian, (a man whom Panætius the Rhodian philosopher used to call the Prophet, because he [p. 1013] could so easily divine the meanings of poem ,)
        when explaining this verse,
        affirms that the magadis was a kind of flute:
        though Aristoxenus does not say so either in his treatise
        on the Flute-players or in that on Flutes and other Musical Instruments;
nor does Archestratus either,—and he also wrote two books on Flute-players; nor has Pyrrhander said so in his work on Flute-players; nor Phillis the Delian, —for he also wrote a treatise on Flute-players and so did Euphranor. But Tryphon, in the second book of his essay on Names, speaks thus—“The flute called magadis.”

And in another place he says—"The magadis gives a shrill and deep tone at the same time, as Anaxandrides intimates in his Man fighting in heavy Armour, were we find the line—
I will speak to you like a magadis,
In soft and powerful sounds at the same time.

And, my dear Masurius, there is no one else except you who can solve this difficulty for me.

Ath. 14.36 And Masurius replied—Didymus the gramarian, in his work entitled Interpretations of the Plays of Ion different from the Interpretations of others, says, my good friend Aemilianus, that by the term magadis aulos he understands the instrument which is also called kithariotērios; which is mentioned by Aristoxenus in the first book of his treatise on the Boring of Flutes; for there he says that there are five kinds of flutes; the parthenius, the pædicus, the citharisterius, the perfect, and the superperfect. And he says that Ion has omitted the conjunction te improperly, so that we are to understand by magadis aulos the flute which accompanies the magadis; for the magadis is a stringed (psaltikon) instrument, as Anacreon tells us, and it was invented by the Lydians, on which account Ion, in his Omphale, calls the Lydian women psaltriai, as playing [ma^ga^d-izō] on stringed instruments,

psal-tria , hē, A.female harper, Pl.Prt. 347d, Ion Trag.22, Arist.Ath.50.2, Men.319.4, Plu.Caes.10,

ma^ga^d-izō , A. play the magadis, II. of a choir, sing a succession of notes in octaves, “m. en tē dia pasōn sumphōnia”

sumphōn-ia , hē, ōdē harmonian, A. [two voices] concord or unison of sound, homologia
3. harmonious union of many voices or sounds, concert, hoi tōn s. logoi
opp. diaphōnia,

in the following lines—
But come, ye Lydian psaltriai, and singing [aoido]
Your ancient [stored[ hymns, [humnōn] do honour to this stranger.

Honor this stranger Koimao lull, put to sleep, also, soothe, assuage
of the sleep of death,

But Theophilus the comic poet, in his Neoptolemus, calls playing [on the magadis magadizein, saying—
It may be that a worthless son may sing
His father or his mother on the magadis (magadizein),
[p. 1014] Sitting upon the wheel; but none of us
Shall ever play such music now as theirs.

And Euphorion, in his treatise on the Isthmian Games, says, that the magadis is an ancient instrument, but that in latter times it was altered, and had the name also changed to that of the sambuca. And, that this instrument was very much used at Mitylene, so that one of the Muses was represented by an old statuary, whose name was Lesbothemis, as holding one in her hand. But Menæchmus, in his treatise on Artists, says that the pēktis, which he calls identical with the magadis, was invented by Sappho [Lesbian]. And Aristoxenus says that the magadis and the pectis were both played with the fingers without any plectrum; on which account

        Pindar, in his Scolium addressed to Hiero, having named the magadis,
        calls it a responsive harping (psalmon antiphthoggon),
        because its music is accompanied in all its keys by two kinds of singers,
        namely, men and boys. And Phrynichus, in his Phœnician Women, has said—

Singing responsive songs on tuneful harps.

psal-mos , ho, A.twitching or twanging with the fingers, “psalmoi toxōn”
later, song sung to the harp, psalm, LXX 2 Ki.23.1 , Ep.Eph.5.19; “biblos psalmōn” Ev.Luc.20.42.
krekō , A.weave, “iston” Sapph.90; “peplous” E.El.542. 2. strike a stringed instrument with the plectron, “magadin”

And Sophocles, in his Mysians, says—

There sounded too the Phrygian triangle, [ t. psaltēria]
With oft-repeated notes; to which responded [anti-spastos ]
The well-struck strings of the soft Lydian pectis.
Ath. Deipnosophists 14 [37.] [635] But some people raise a question how, as the magadis did not exist in the time of Anacreon (for instruments with many strings were never seen till after his time), Anacreon can possibly mention it, as he does when he says—
I hold my magadis and sing,
Striking [psallō] loud the twentieth string,
Leucaspis.
And as every one of these is executed on seven strings, he says that it was very nearly correct of Anacreon to speak of twenty strings, as he only omits one for the sake of speaking in round numbers. But Poseidonius is ignorant that the magadis is an ancient instrument, though Pindarus says plainly enough that Terpander invented the barbitos to correspond to, and answer the pectis in use among the Lydians-
    The sweet responsive lyre
    Which long ago the Lesbian bard,
    Terpander, did invent, sweet ornament
    To the luxurious Lydian feasts, when he
    Heard the high-toned pectis.
[38.] [636] However, Diogenes the tragic poet represents the pectis as differing from the magadis; for in his Semele he says-
    And now I hear the turban-wearing women,
    Votaries of the Asiatic Cybele,
    The wealthy Phrygians' daughters, loudly sounding
    With drums, and bull-roarers, and brazen-clashing
    Cymbals, their hands each striking in concert,
    Pour forth a wise and healing hymn to the gods.
    Likewise the Lydian and the Bactrian maids
    Who dwell beside the Halys, loudly worship
    The Tmolian goddess Artemis, who loves
    The laurel shade of the thick leafy grove,
    Striking the clear three-cornered pectis, and
    Raising responsive tunes upon the magadis,
    While flutes in Persian manner neatly joined
    Accompany the chorus.

First of all, Greeks, the comrades brave of Pelops,
Sang o'er their wine, in Phrygian melody,
The praises of the mighty Mountain Mother;
        But others, striking the shrill strings of the lyre,
        Gave forth a Lydian hymn."

But we must not admit,” says Polybius of Megalopolis, "that music, as Ephorus asserts, was introduced among men for the purposes of fraud and trickery. Nor must we think that the ancient Cretans and Lacedæmonians used flutes and songs at random to excite their military ardour, instead of trumpets. Nor are we to imagine that the earliest Arcadians had no reason whatever for doing so, when they introduced music into every department of their management of the republic; so that, though the nation in every other respect was most austere in its manner of life,

God is not ignorant, as supposed, there are compound words for every kind of instruments.

anti-psallō ,
A.play a stringed instrument in accompaniment of song, “a. elegois phormigga” Ar.Av.218.

psalmōd-ia , A. singing to the harp, Aristid.2.310J

psaltōd-eō ,

Gellius Attic nights Book 1 11 1 The statement of the celebrated writer Thucydides,
        that the Lacedaemonians in battle used pipes and not trumpets,
        with a citation of his words on that subject; and the remark of Herodotus
        that king Alyattes had female lyre-players as part of his military equipment;
        and finally, some notes on the pipe used by Gracchus when addressing assemblies.
6 Tradition has it that the Cretans also commonly entered battle
        with the lyre playing before them and regulating their step.
7 Furthermore, Alyattes, king of the land of Lydia,
        a man of barbaric manners and luxury,
        when he made war on the Milesians, as Herodotus tells us in his History,
        had in his army and his battle-array orchestras of pipe- and lyre-players,
        and even female flute-players, such as are the delight of wanton banqueters.
8 Homer, however, says that the Achaeans entered battle,
        relying, not on the music of lyres and pipes,
        but on silent harmony and unanimity of spirit:

Heredotus1.html This prince waged war with the Medes under Cyaxares, the grandson of Deioces, drove the Cimmerians out of Asia, conquered Smyrna, the Colophonian colony, and invaded Clazomenae. From this last contest he did not come off as he could have wished, but met with a sore defeat; still, however, in the course of his reign, he performed other actions very worthy of note, of which I will now proceed to give an account.
        Inheriting from his father a war with the Milesians,
        he pressed the siege against the city by attacking it in the following manner.
        When the harvest was ripe on the ground he marched his army into Milesia
        to the sound of pipes and harps, and flutes masculine and feminine.

The buildings that were scattered over the country he neither pulled down nor burnt, nor did he even tear away the doors, but left them standing as they were.

He cut down, however, and utterly destroyed all the trees and all the corn throughout the land, and then returned to his own dominions.

Aristotle: Melody Deceives: "Poets also make use of this in inventing words, as a melody "without strings" or "without the lyre"; for they employ epithets from negations, a course which is approved in proportional metaphors..

The form of diction should be neither metrical nor without rhythm.

If it is metrical, it lacks persuasiveness, for it appears artificial, and at the same time it distracts the hearer's attention, since it sets him on the watch for the recurrence of such and such a cadence..

According to Philo, the gods of the pagans exploit this weakness of men. For the sake of a better effect, and with the intention of more easily cheating their devotes, that they have set their lies to melodies, rhythms and meters.." Click for more.

"Philodemos considered it paradoxical that music should be regarded as veneration of the gods while musicians were paid for performing this so-called veneration. Again, Philodemus held as self-deceptive the view that music mediated religious ecstasy. He saw the entire condition induced by the noise of cymbals and tambourines as a disturbance of the spirit. (Paul called it mad or insane) He found it significant that, on the whole, only women and effeminate men fell into this folly."

Aristot. Nic. Eth. 1175b.1

But things that are akin to things of different kinds must themselves differ in kind.
        [3] A still clearer proof may be drawn
        from the hindrance that activities
        receive from the pleasure derived from other activities.

For instance, persons fond of the flute
        cannot give their attention to a philosophical discussion [The LOGOS or Regulative Principle]
        when they overhear someone playing the flute,
        because they enjoy music more than the activity in which they are engaged;
            therefore the pleasure afforded by the music of the flute
                impairs the activity of study.