Muscle · Neck

Oblique arytenoid

Musculus arytenoideus obliquus

Two narrow slips crossing one another in an X on the back of the arytenoid cartilages, each running from the muscular process of one arytenoid up to the tip of the other. Lying superficial to the transverse arytenoid, they pull the two cartilages towards each other and tip them forward, so together the pair acts as a drawstring rather than as a mover of a joint. Their upper fibres do not stop at the arytenoid tip but continue into the fold of mucosa that runs forward to the epiglottis, becoming the aryepiglottic muscle — so the same contraction that closes the arytenoids behind also narrows the entrance to the airway above.