Rites matrimonial solemnized with pomp
Of sumptuous banquets. Forth they led the brides
Each from her chamber, and along the streets
With torches usher’d them: and with the voice
Of hymeneal song heard all around.
Here striplings danced in circles to the sound
Of pipe and harp; while in the portals stood
Women, admiring all the gallant show.
Cowper.
[264] Vaulted on steeds.] This circumstance has been thought to betray a later age: as it is alleged, that the only instance of riding on horseback mentioned by Homer is that of Diomed, who, with Ulysses, rides the horses of Rhesus of which he has made prize. But though chariot-horses only are found in the Homeric battles, there is an allusion to horsemanship, as an exhibition of skill, in a simile of the 15th book of the Iliad, v. 679; where the rider is described as riding four horses at once, and vaulting from one to the other.