Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

MATRIMONIUM.

250

MATRIMONIUM.

ya^eta) were made to the pods who presided
over marriage. Another ceremony of almost
general observance on the wedding day, was
the bathing of both the bride and bridegroom
in water fetched from some particular foun-
tain, whence, as some think, the custom of
placing the figure of a Aourpo^opos or "water
carrier" over the tombs of those who died
unmarried. After these preliminaries, the
bride was generally conducted from her fa-
ther's to the house of the bridegroom at night-
fall, in a chariot G<!> ofAafijs) drawn by a pair
of mules or oxen, and furnished with a kind
of couch (kAii<is) as a seat. On either side of
her sat the bridegroom and one of his most
intimate friends or relations, who from his
office was called the para nymph (jrapanj^o;
or n>n$euT7js) ; but as he rode in the car-
riage (6\>;/xa) with the bride and bridegroom,
he was sometimes called the irapoxos. The
nuptial procession was probably accom-
panied, according to circumstances, by a
number of persons, some of whom carried
the nuptial torches. Both bride and bride-
groom (the former veiled) were decked out
in their best attire, with chaplets on their
heads, and the doors of their houses were
hung with festoons of ivy and bay. As
the bridal procession moved along, the
hymenaean song was sung to the accompa-
niment of Lydian flutes, even in olden times,
as beautifully described by Homer, and the
married pair received the greetings and
congratulations of those who met them.
After entering the bridegroom's house, into
which the bride was probably conducted by
his mother, bearing a lighted torch, it was
customary to shower sweetmeats upon them
(K<naxvcr)xaTa.), as emblems of plenty and
prosperity. After this came the nuptial
feast, to which the name gamos was particu-
larly applied ; it was generally given in the
house of the bridegroom or his parents ; and
besides being a festive meeting, served other
and more important purposes. There was
no public rite, whether civil or religious,
connected with the celebration of marriage
amongst the ancient Greeks, and therefore
no public record of its solemnisation. This
deficiency then was supplied by the mar-
riage feast, for the guests were of course
competent to prove the fact of a marriage
having taken place. To this feast, contrary
to the usual practice amongst the Greeks,
women were invited as well as men; but
they seem to have sat at a separate table,
with the bride still veiled amongst them.
At the conclusion of this feast she was con-
ducted by her husband into the bridal
chamber; and a law of So'ion required that
on entering it they should eat a quince to- !

gether, as if to indicate that their conver-
sation ought to be sweet and agreeable.
The song called the Epithalamium was then
sung before the doors of the bridal chamber.
The day after the marriage, the first of the
bride's residence in her new abode, was
called the epaulia (inav\ia) ■ on which their
friends sent the customary presents to the
newly married couple. On another day,
the apaulia {aTravkia), perhaps the second
after marriage, the bridegroom left his house,
to lodge apart from his wife at his father's-
in-law. Some of the presents made to the
bride by her husband and friends were called
anacalypteria (a.va.Ka\v-Tripia)t as being given
on the occasion of the bride first appearing
unveiled : they were probably given on the
epauiia, or day after the marriage. Another
ceremony observed after marriage was the
sacrifice which the husband offered up on
the occasion of his bride being registered
amongst his own phratores. The above ac-
count refers to Athenian customs.—At Sparta
the betrothal of the bride by her father or
guardian ((cvpio;) was requisite as a preli-
minary of marriage, as well as at Athens.
Another custom peculiar to the Spartans,
and a relic of ancient times, was the seizure
of the bride by her intended husband, but of
ceurse with the sanction of her parents or
guardians. She was not, however, imme
diately domiciled in her husband's house,
hut cohabited with him for some time clan-
destinely, till he brought her, and frequently
her mother also, to his home.—The Greeks,
generally speaking, entertained little regard
for the female character. They considered
women, in fact, as decidedly inferior to men,
qualified to discharge only the subordinate
functions in life, and rather necessary as
helpmates than agreeable as companions.
To these notions female education for the
most part corresponded, and in fact con-
firmed them; it did not supply the elegant
accomplishments and refinement of manners
which permanently engage the affections,
when other attractions have passed awaj.
Aristotle states, that the relation of man to
woman is that of the governor to the sub-
ject ; and Plato, that a woman's virtue may
be summed up in a few words, for she has
only to manage the house well, keeping what
there is in it, and obeying her husband.
Among the Dorians, however, and especially
at Sparta, women enjoyed much more esti-
mation than in the rest of Greece.-—(2) Ro-
man. A legal Roman marriage was t called
justae nuptiae, justum matrimonium, as being
conformable to jus (civile) or to law. A legal
marriage was either Cum conventione uxorii
in manum viri ir it was without this con-