chelys

Definitions

noun The ancient Greek lyre: so called because first made of tortoise-shell.
noun In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a lute or viol.
noun A genus of tortoises, the type of the family Chelydidœ, containing only one species, C. matamata or C. fimbriata, See matamata, and cut under Chelydidœ.

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Doni [8] mentions the barbiton, defining it in his index as _Barbitos seu major chelys italice tiorba_, and deriving it from lyre and cithara in common with testudines, tiorbas and all tortoiseshell instruments.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3 "Banks" to "Bassoon" Various
Scilicet hic illi meditantur pondera mores; hic premitur fecunda quies uirtusque serena fronte grauis sanusque nitor luxuque carentes deliciae, quas ipse suis digressus Athenis mallet deserto senior Gargettius horto; 95 haec per et Aegaeas hiemes Hyadumque niuosum sidus et Oleniis dignum petiisse sub astris, si Maleae credenda ratis Siculosque per aestus sit uia: cur oculis sordet uicina uoluptas? hic tua Tiburtes Faunos chelys et iuuat ipsum100

A Villa at Tibur 1912
From the Persians and Arabs we learn that it was a kind of _rebab_ or lute, or a chelys-lyre, [3] first introduced into Europe through Asia Minor by way of Greece, and centuries later into Spain by the Moors, amongst whom it was in the 14th century known as _al-barbet_. [

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3 "Banks" to "Bassoon" Various