In many places the bride was required to cut off some of her ringlets and offer them to the gods of marriage, at the same time pouring libations on their altars.
Both bride and bridegroom wore bright colored garments, and were adorned with garlands, composed of flowers sacred to Venus, and other deities supposed to preside over nuptials. The house where the wedding was celebrated was likewise decked with garlands.
The Bœotians used wreaths of wild asparagus, which is full of thorns, but bears excellent fruit; it was therefore thought to resemble ladies, who give their lovers some trouble in gaining their hearts, but whose affection is a sweet reward. The bride carried an earthen vessel full of parched barley, and was accompanied by a maid bearing a sieve, to signify her obligation to attend to domestic concerns; a pestle was likewise tied to the door, for the same purpose. The bride was usually conveyed in a chariot from her father’s house to her husband’s in the evening. She sat in the middle, with the bridegroom on one side, and one of her most intimate female friends on the other. A widower was not allowed to attend his bride, but sent one of his friends for that purpose. Blazing torches were carried before the young couple, and music followed them. Homer thus describes a bridal procession:
“The youthful dancers in a circle bound
To the soft flute, and cittern’s silver sound;
Through the fair streets, the matrons in a row
Stand in their porches, and enjoy the show.”
When the chariot arrived at the bridegroom’s dwelling, the axletree was burnt, to signify that the bride was never to return to the paternal roof. As they entered, figs and various kinds of fruit were poured on their heads, as an indication of future plenty. A sumptuous banquet was prepared for relations and friends, after which the company diverted themselves with dances and hymeneal songs.
At Athens, it was customary for a boy to come in during the feast, covered with thorn boughs and scorns, bearing a basket full of bread, and singing, “I have left the worse and found the better.” Some have supposed this was in commemoration of their change of diet from acorns to corn, but Dr. Potter’s supposition seems much more probable; viz. that it was intended to indicate the superiority of marriage over single life.
In Athens, the bride’s feet were always washed in water brought from the fountain of Callirhoe, which was supposed to possess some peculiar virtue. She was lighted to her apartment with several torches. Around one of these flambeaux, the mother tied the hair-lace of her newly wedded daughter, taken from her head for that purpose. Mothers considered it a great misfortune if illness, or any accident, prevented them from performing this ceremony. The married couple ate a quince together, to remind them that their conversation with each other should be sweet and agreeable. The company remained until late at night, dancing and singing songs filled with praises of the bridegroom and bride, and wishes for their happiness. In the morning they returned, and again saluted them with songs. The solemnities continued several days; during which relations and friends offered gifts, consisting of golden vessels, couches, ointment boxes, combs, sandals, &c., carried in great state to the house of the bridegroom by women, preceded by a boy in white apparel, with a torch in his hand, and another bearing a basket of flowers. It was likewise customary for the bridegroom and his friends to give presents to the bride, on the third day after the wedding, which was the first time she appeared unveiled.