Language/Ancient-greek-to-1453/Culture/Gamos-–-Marriage

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  • The wedding carriage with the bride and groom

(Attic black-figure vase by the painter Amasis, 550 BC)

Consider exploring these related pages after completing this lesson: Timeline of ancient Greece, Gamos – Marriage, The Ancient Greek Calendar & Status of women in Ancient Greece.

Gamos – Marriage[edit | edit source]

Marriage in ancient Greece had less of a basis in personal relationships and more in social responsibility. The goal and focus of all marriages was intended to be reproduction, making marriage an issue of public interest. Marriages were usually arranged by the parents; on occasion professional matchmakers were used. Each city was politically independent and each had its own laws concerning marriage. For the marriage to be legal, the woman's father or guardian gave permission to a suitable male who could afford to marry. Orphaned daughters were usually married to uncles or cousins. Wintertime marriages were popular due to the significance of that time to Hera, the goddess of marriage. The couple participated in a ceremony which included rituals such as veil removal, but it was the couple living together that made the marriage legal. Marriage was understood to be the official transition from childhood into adulthood for females.The wedding procession, or gamos, began and ended with the hearth and marked the bride’s transition into her new oikos.

Vase paintings often show both mothers; the bride’s mother carried torches lit from her home-hearth, which protected her daughter during the procession, while her mother-in-law, who held torches lit from her respective hearth, received the bride into her new husband’s home. The mothers of the bride and groom direct the transfer of the bride to her new home.

Carrying the wedding torches was a significant role for Greek mothers. For example, in Euripides’ Phoenissae, Jocasta laments that she was unable to raise the wedding torches at her son’s wedding After the bride left her mother, and thus, the protection of her household hearth, she joined her new oikos in the rituals of incorporation.

The first ritual, the katachysmata, is mentioned in a fragment of the 5th century B.C.E. comedian Theopompous :

« Φέρε σύ τα καταχύσματα   ταχέως κατάχει του νυμφίου και της κόρης »

Bring the katachysmata; quickly pour them over the groom and the bride!

(Theopompus, F15 PCG VII=F14 CAF I)

The wedding carriage with the bride and groom and the provider (Attic black-figure vase by the painter Amasis, 550 BC)

According to Hesychius and the scholia to Aristophanes’ Ploutos, this ritual took place at the hearth. There is a depiction of this rite on a red-figure loutrophoros by the Phiale Painter, 450-425 B.C.E. This painting is fragmentary and does not depict the ritual taking place at the hearth, though Hesychius describes it as such. The katachysmata was also poured over the heads of another category of household inductees, newly-bought slaves.

This mixture contained dates, coins, dried fruits, figs, and nuts and was meant to represent good seasons, and thus good auspices for the new member of the household.There is vase-painting evidence for an introduction ritual occurring at the hearthside, in 470-60 B.C.E. and depicts a groom leading his bride toward a flaming altar. The flaming altar represent the hearth of the groom’s household. A female figure holding a scepter stands behind the altar. She is also distinguished by her himation,or cloak, of deep purple. Some scholars interpret this figure as the goddess Hestia. In the same way that the image of the elaborate, built altar is conceptual, so too is the presence of the goddess. This image, then, probably refers to the groom leading his new wife to the sacred hearth of her new "oikos". Perhaps this scene portrays an introduction rite which parallels the "amphidromia" for newborn children. The bride, like the newborn or slave is a new member in the oikos, a transition which demands the proper hearthside rites for acceptance into the "oikos". 

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  • Wedding preparation: 4th century. Hermitage Museum, in St. Petersburg

In Ancient Sparta[edit | edit source]

In Ancient Sparta, the subordination of private interests and personal happiness to the good of the public was strongly encouraged by the laws of the city.

One example of the legal importance of marriage can be found in the laws of Lycurgus of Sparta, which required that criminal proceedings be taken against

those who married too late (graphe opsigamiou) or unsuitably (graphe kakogamiou), as well as against confirmed bachelors,  that is, against those who did not marry at all (graphe agamiou). These regulations were founded on the generally recognised principle that it was the duty of every citizen to raise up a strong and healthy legitimate children to the state.The Spartans considered teknopoioia (childbearing) as the main object of marriage. Because of this, whenever a woman had no children by her own husband, the state ought to allow her to live with another man.

In Ancient Athens[edit | edit source]

For a marriage to be viewed as legitimate in Athens, both the bride and groom had to be of free status, and after 451 BC, both had to be legitimate children of Athenian citizen families.Children of such unions would then be considered legitimate Athenian citizens when they came of age. Though the marriages were not legally recognized in Athens, wealthy metics would be considered married by those around them if they followed the same procedures and ceremonies. These couples would then act as any married Athenian couple. 

Sources[edit | edit source]

  • Wikipedia

Author[edit | edit source]

Marianthi

  • Ευγενική χορηγία που στοχεύει να βοηθήσει μαθητές ή μη, απανταχού της Γης, που επιδίδονται στην εκμάθηση της ελληνικής γλώσσας!
  • Contribution bénévole visant à aider les personnes, partout dans le monde, qui sont engagées dans l'apprentissage de la langue grecque !
  • Voluntary contribution aimed at helping people, all over the world, who are committed to learning the Greek language!

 

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