II. Ancient Parjan, i.e. 1. Greek. — The ancient Greek legislators considered the relation of marriage as a mat- ter not merely of private, but also of public or general interest. This was particularly the case at Sparta, where proceedmgs might be taken against those who married too late or imsuitably, as well as against those who did not marry at all. But, independent of public considerations, there were also private or personal rea- sons, peculiar to the ancients, which made marriage an obligation. One of these was the duty incumbent upon every individual to provide for a continuance of repre- sentatives to succeed himself as ministers of the divini- ty ; and another was the desire felt by almost every one, not merely to perpetuate his own name, but to leave some one who might make the customary oifcrings at his grave. We are told that with this view childless persons sometimes adopted children. The choice of a wife among the ancients was but rarely grounded upon affection, and scarcely ever eoidd have been the result of previous acquaintance or familiarity. In many cases a father chose for his son a bride whom the latter had never seen, or compelled him to marry for the sake of checking his extravagances.
By the Athenian laws a citizen was not allowed to marry a foreign woman, nor conversely, under very se- vere penalties; but proximity by blood (ciyxia-tui) or consanguinity (avyyivtia) was not, with some few ex- ceptions, a bar to marriage in anj^ part of Greece : di- rect lineal descent was. At Athens the most important preliminary to marriage was the betrothal (tyyv'inic), ^vhich was in fact indispensable to the complete validity of a marriage-contract. It was made by tlie natural or legal guardian (u Kupiog) of the bride elect, and attend- ed by the relatives of both parties as witnesses. The wife's dowry was settled at the betrothal. On the day before the r/amos, or marriage, or sometimes on the day itself, certain sacrifices or oflerings {-n-po-fXeia ya\U3iv or TTpoya^nta) were made to the gods 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 fountain, whence, as some think, the custom of placing the figure of a Xoi'rpo^opoc, or " water car- rier," over the tombs of those who died unmarried. Af-
MARRIAGE
V99
MARRIAGE
tcr these preliminaries, the bride ■was generally conduct- ed from her lather's to the house of the bridegroom at nightfall, in a chariot (t^' ujia'£,i](;') drawn by a pair of mules or oxen, and furnished with a kind of couch (kXiv'ic) as a seat. On either side of her sat the bride- groom and one of his most intimate friends or relations, who from his office was called the paranymph {napci- vvficpoi; or vvfKpevTi'ig) ; but, as he rode in the carriage (oX^jfici) with the bride and bridegroom, he was some- times called the Trapoxof- The nuptial procession was probably accompanied, according to circumstances, by a number of persons, some of whom carried the nuptial torches. Both bride and bridegroom (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 hymenajan song was sung to the ac- companiment of Lydian tiutes, even in olden times, as beautifully described by Homer, and the married pair received the greetings and congratidations 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 (jcaTaxi'dHaTa), as emblems of plentj' and prosperity. After this came the nuptial feast, to which the name gumos was particularly ap- plied ; it was generally given in the house of the bride- groom or his parents, and, besides being a festive meet- ing, served other and more important purposes. There Avas no public rite, whether civil or religious, connected with the celebration of marriage among the ancient Greeks, and therefore no public record of its solemniza- tion. 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 among the Greeks, women were invited as well as men ; but they seem to have sat at a separate table, with the bride, still veiled, among them. At the conclusion of this feast she was conducted by her husband into the bridal chamber ; and a law of Solon required that, on entering it, they should eat a quince together, as if to inc'.icate that their conversation ought to be sweet and agveea- ble. The song called the Epithdlamium -ivas 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 epxiulia {InavXia), on which their friends sent the customary presents to the newly- married couple. On another day, the ajunilia {cnrcw- \ia), 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 muicali/pteria (avaica- Xv-iTTi'ipia), as being given on the occasion of the bride lirst appearing unveiled ; they were probably given on the ejMidia, or daj' after the marriage. Another cere- mony observed after marriage was the sacrifice which the husband offered up on the occasion of his bride be- ing registered among his own phra tores.