Ancient engagements in Ancient Greece were not really for romantic reasons, rather to create reciprocal relationships between the two families. Marriage transactions were often arranged by a woman’s male kin or kyrios and involved a series of property and dowry payment exchanges. They even had a name for it – δoδωµι, a verb used to describe the process of giving brides to their new husband. This was also reflected in the marriage ceremony itself.
According to Rebecca Hague, special wedding vases, the lebes gamikos and loutrophoros, often depicted scenes of the wedding ceremony for which they were created. Surviving examples reveal that the ceremonies commenced with sacrifices and dedications to the gods to protect the bride and groom.
The happy couple would bathe and cleanse in ritual waters, and both would dress elaborately in robes. Brides would adorn themselves with a crown and girdle as a mark of virginity.
After the wedding couple were dressed, the festivities began with a delicious feast for both families and their friends. At the end of the feast, the bride would travel by cart to her new home .
One of the most bizarre explanations for romantic love originates in a philosophical text written by Plato, the Symposium. Symposia were hosted and attended by notable men of the classical and Hellenistic periods to eat, drink and be merry with music and scantily clad entertainers, or hetaerae.
At this fictional event, the comic playwright Aristophanes offers a speech in praise of Eros, god of love and desire. He tells a strange story that all humans were conjoined in the mists of time, until Zeus decided this was too threatening and cut people in two! Love is human’s inherent desire to find their ‘other half’ in order to become a whole person on earth.
Lets go back in time and check out the love-making and marriage traditions of Ancient Greece!
#ancientgreece #history #marriage #rome #plato #greekhistory
Scriptwriter: Natasha Martell – https://7strangethings.com/
Video Editor & Motion Graphics: Kanishka Mudaliyar
Voice-over Artist: Jake Flory
Music: Motionarray.com
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