Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

I.\ATR.IMION TUSI. MIATRIM\TONIUM. 737
at. Athens was the Esztgesis (i'yyi0r/s) or betro- panied, according to circumstances, by a numrlber of
thll, which was in fact indispensable to the cor- persons, some of whom carried the nuptial torches
plete validity of a marriage contract. It was made (85,es rVqvLucai, Aristoph. Pax, 1318); and in
by the natural or legal guardian (6 tc'pLos) of the some places, as in Boeotia, it was customary to
bride elect, and attended by the relatives of both burn the axle of the carriage on its arrival at the
parties as witnesses. The law of Athens ordained, bridegroom's house, as a symbol that the bride was
that all children born from a marriage legally con- to remain at home and not go abroad. (Plut.
tracted in this respect should be yq'ilteoe (Demosth. Quaest. Rosm. p. 1 1l.) If the bridegroom had been
c. Steph. p. 1134), and consequently, if sons, married before, the bride was not conducted to
Ord,uotpol, or intitled to inherit equally or in gavel- his house by himself, but by one of his friends,
kind. It would seem, therefore, that the issue of who was therefore called,v'taYcpW yo6s. (Hesych.
a marriage without espousals would lose their s. v.; Pollux, iii. 40.)
heritable rights, which depended on their being Both bride and bridegroom (the former veiled)
born et &aorTs Keal iyyusrrls ymlae1Cos: i. e. from a were of course decked out in their best attire, with
citizen and a legally betrothed wife. The wife's chaplets on their heads (Becker, Cla.rilcles, vol. ii.
dowry was also settled at the espousals. (Meier p. 467), and the doors of their houses were hung
and Schlsman, p. 415.) with festoons of ivy and bay. (Plut. AnAat. 10.
But there were also several ceremonies observed p. 27.) As the bridal procession moved along, the
either on or immediately before the day of mar- HIymenacan song was sung to the accompaniment
ringe. The first of these were the mrpove'Aela yd- of Lydian flutes, even in olden times, as beautifully;tit, or 7rpoeyaydem (Pollux, iii. 38), and consisted described by Homer (I1. xviii. 490; Hes. Sct.
of sacrifices or offerings made to the Oes?yanu AloI lere. 273), and the married pair received the
or divinities who presided over marriage. They greetings and congratulations of those who met
are genlerally supposed to have been made-on the them. (Aristoplh. Paos, 1316.) After entering
day before the yduos or marriage; but there is a the bridegroom's house, into which the bride was
passage in Euripides (1p1hig. in Aul. 642) -which probably conducted by his mother bearing a lighted
nlfakes it probable that this was not always the torch (Eurip. Phoe1n. v. 311), it was customary to
case. The sacrificer was the father of the bride shower sweetmeats upon thems (scaraXtv'-maza) as
elect; the divinities to whom the offering was made embiems of plenty and prosperity. (Schol. adr
were, according to Pollux (iii. 381), Hera and AristoiA. Plut. 768.)
Artemis, and the Fates, to whom the brides elect After this came the?yd/os or nuptial feast, thlm
then dedicated the a7rapXar of their hair. Accord- otolv7a tyaLutc, which was generally (Becker, Clnri —
illg to Diodorus Siculus (v. 73) they were Zeus iles, vol. ii. p. 469) given in the house of the brideand Hera TreAheLs (Juno pronuba); but they pro- groom or his parents; and besides being a festive
bably varied in different countries, and were somee- mecting, served other and more important purposes.
times the Oeol iYX;cPLOL or local deities. The There was no public right whether civil or religious
offerings to Artemis were probably made with a connected with the celebration of marriage anmongst
view of propitiating her, -as she was supposed to the ancient Giecks, and therefore no public record
be averse to marriage. [BRAUvRONIA.] Ve of its solemniiisation. This deficiency then was supmay also observe that Pollux uses srpo-yd meta as plied by the marriage feast, for the guests were of
synonymous with 7rpoTerEta, making yaue.os iden- course competent to prove the fact of a marriage
tical with TeXos, as if marriage were the rAeos or having taken place; and Demosthenes (c. Owset.
perfection of man's being: whence E'AeEOS con- p. 869) says they were invited partly with such
nected with or presiding over marriage or a mar- views. To this feast, contrary to the usual pracricd person, and daos En7et:'rAjys a house without tice anlongst the Greeks, women were invited as
a husband or incomplete. (Hom. It. ii. 701.) well as men; but they seem to have sat at a separate
A\nother ceremony of almost general observance on table, with the bride still veiled amongst thenm.
the wedding day, was the bathilng of both the (Lucian, Cbosai. 8; Athen. xiv. p. 644.) At the
bride and bridegroom in water fetched from some conclusion of this feast she was conducted by
particular fountain, whence, as some think, the her husband into the bridal chanlber; and a law
custom of placing the figure of a AovTpoo'ppos or of Solon (Plut. Solon, c. 20) required that on en6" water-carrier " over the tombs of those who died tering it they should eat a quince together, as if to
numarried. [BALNEAE, p. 185, b.]j At Athens indicate that their conversation ought to be sweet
the water was fetched from the fountain CallirrhoU, and agreeable. The song called the Epithalamiunn
at the foot of the Acropolis (Thuc. ii. 15.). After (E'7rLOeaAdtov, sc. teAos) was then sung before the
these preliminaries the bride was generally con- doors of the bridal chamber, as represented by
ducted from her father's to the house of the bride- Theocritus in his 18th Idyl, where, speaking of
groom at nightfall; in a chariot (Ep' &tbudUr s) drawn the marriage of Heleln, he saysby a pair of mules or oxen, and' funrished with a
cXvi's or kind of a couch as a seat. On either side Twelve Spartans virgins, the Laconian bloom,
of her sat the bridegroom, and one of his most in- Cloih'd before fair Helen's bridal roomtimate friends or relations, who from his office was To the sale time with cadence true they beat
called srapdmsujoes or Yvu/L.uPeur7s: liut as he rode The rapid round of many twinkling feet,
in the carriage (Xu7usa) withr the bride asd beride- One measure tript, one song together sung,
groom, he was sometimes called the Srdpoxos Their bymelean al the palce rung
(6 E'c rpfvou 6 7rapoXoiemvos zrcipoxos &ix'1eAB, CAPMAN.
lIarpocr. s. v.). Hence Aristophanes (Aves, 1735) On which passage the Scholiast remarks that EpiEpeaks of the " blooming Love guiding the supple thalamnia are of two kinds; some sung in the evenreins," when Zeus was wedded to Hera, as the ing, and called tcaa'rGcojoLUjTFC'd, and others in the
Zs/bs 7rapoxos 7dya,uov're rE' eisaateovoor "Hpas. morning (i6pOpla), and called IesyeprmTcad.
The nuptial procession was probably accome- The day after the marriage, the first of the
3B.