Sistrum

The sistrum (ancient Greek: seistron) is an ancient percussion instrument, an idiophone. In antiquity it was also a children's toy, a rattle used to lull babies to sleep. In Minoan times, the earliest period in which a musical instrument is found in Europe and perhaps in the world, it was used in ceremonies.

Its name comes from the ancient Greek verb 'seio', to shake, from which the Greek word for earthquake (seismos) also comes. The rattlesnakes also took their Greek name from the sistrum, because of the rattle on their tails, which makes a characteristic sound when shaken.