(Lat., from Gk. tumpanon).
Ancient hand drum (a Membranophone). Approximately 30 cm in diameter, it consisted of a rim of metal or wood covered on both sides by a skin membrane. It is usually shown held in the left hand being struck by the fingertips of the right. Normally it was associated with the orgiastic cults of Dionysus and Cybele where it appeared almost invariably with the Aulos. The absence of any reference to it in Homer or the Archaic lyric poets, and its sudden appearance in the art and literature of the 5th century bce, have prompted the suggestion that it came to Greece from Asia Minor in that century with the cult of Cybele and spread thence to the cult of Dionysus; nevertheless, it may only have become more prominent then, since the almost universal appearance of hand drums and pipes in orgiastic cults might speak for its usage in the Dionysian cult of pre-classical Greece.
The use of the instrument certainly increased as the Asiatic cults became more popular. Livy described its ecstatic function in the cult of Dionysus at Rome, and the introduction of the worship of Cybele to Rome in 204 bce furthered its employment. There are many Roman literary references and pictorial representations, which usually refer to this cult usage. The popularity of the mime from late republican times also extended its use. Interludes of dance and song sometimes supplemented the acting of the mimi and among the instruments featured were tympana.
See also Greece, §I, 5(i)(f).
E.R. Dodds: The Greeks and the Irrational (Berkeley, 1951/R)
G. Fleischhauer: Etrurien und Rom, Musikgeschichte in Bildern, ii/5 (Leipzig, 1964, 2/1978)
T.J. Mathiesen: Apollo’s Lyre: Greek Music and Music Theory in Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Lincoln, NE, 1999), 173–6
JAMES W. McKINNON/ROBERT ANDERSON