Which musical instrument did Hermes invent from a tortoise shell? The lyre.
According to the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, the infant Hermes found a tortoise, removed its flesh, and used the hollow shell as the body of a musical instrument. He stretched strings across it and invented the chelys, an early tortoise-shell lyre. The answer is therefore the lyre, not the harp, panpipes, or aulos.
The invention forms part of Hermes’s famous first-day adventure. After stealing Apollo’s cattle, Hermes created the instrument and played it beautifully. Apollo, initially furious about the theft, became fascinated by the music and eventually exchanged the cattle for the lyre. The bargain helps explain why the lyre became strongly associated with Apollo, even though Hermes is credited with inventing this particular form.
Ancient Greek lyres generally used a resonating soundbox, two arms, a crossbar, and multiple strings. The myth captures Hermes’s characteristic combination of ingenuity, mischief, and negotiation. Later traditions sometimes credit Apollo with inventing or perfecting the lyre, but the tortoise-shell instrument in Hermes’s birth story is specifically his creation.