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 Boeotians 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 VOL. II. 2

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 acorns, 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.

The old Athenian laws ordered that men should be thirty-five and women twenty-six, before they married; but Plato considered thirty a suitable age for the bridegroom, and other writers approved of brides as young as eighteen, or fifteen. Grecian women never changed the name they received when infants thus Xantippe would be distinguished from another of the same name, by being called Xantippe, the wife of Socrates.

In the primitive ages women were purchased by their husbands, and received no dowry from relations; but with the progress of civilization and wealth this custom disappeared, and wives were respected in proportion to the value of their marriage portion. Medea, in Euripides, complains that women were the most miserable of the human race, because they were obliged to buy their own masters at a dear rate. Those who brought no dowry were liable to be spoken of contemptuously, as if they were slaves rather than lawful wives. Hence, when men married women without fortune, they generally gave a written instrument acknowledging the receipt of a dowry. Those who received munificent portions required a

greater degree of respect, and expected additional privileges on that account. Hermione, in Euripides, is enraged that the captive Andromache should pretend to rival her in the affections of Pyrrhus; and she thus addresses her :

"With these resplendent ornaments of gold
Decking my tresses, in this robe arrayed,

Which bright with various tinctured radiance flames,
Not from the house of Peleus or Achilles
A bridal gift, I come. In Sparta this
From Menelaus, my father, I received
With a rich dowry: therefore I may speak
Freely, and thus to you address my words.

Woman! would'st thou, a slave, beneath the spear
A captive, keep possession of this house,
And drive me out ?"

Some have supposed that Solon intended to forbid dowries, because one of his laws declares, "A bride shall not carry with her to her husband above three garments, and vessels of small value." But this was probably intended merely to prevent extravagance in dress and furniture; for he allowed men who had no sons to leave their estates to daughters, and express laws were made to secure the property in the family, by regulating the marriage of heiresses. The daughters of several Grecian monarchs carried their husbands whole kingdoms for a dowry. When distinguished men died in poverty, the state sometimes provided for their children. Thus the Athenians gave three hundred drachmas to each of the orphan daughters of Aristides, and bestowed a farm belonging to the city upon the grand-daughter of their famous patriot, Aristogiton. Phares, of Chalcedon,

made a law that rich men should give a portion to their daughters when they married poor men, but receive none with their sons' wives. As luxury increased, it followed, as an inevitable consequence, that marriages were more and more made with a view to the acquisition of wealth; and fathers were disappointed at the birth of a daughter, on account of the expense attending her establishment. It was customary for the bridegroom to build and furnish the house, and to make a settlement large in proportion to her dowry, for the support of his wife in case of death or divorce; but unless a written receipt of dowry could be produced by the woman's friends, the husband could not be compelled to allow a separate mainteHeirs were bound by law to support the wives of those from whom they received estates.

nance.

When sons became of age, they enjoyed their mother's fortune during her lifetime, affording her a maintenance in proportion to her rank. If a woman died without children, her dowry returned to the relative by whom it had been bestowed.

Girls who had no fathers were disposed of by their brothers; and if they had neither parents nor brethren, the duty devolved upon grandfathers, or guardians. Sometimes husbands betrothed their wives to other persons on their death-beds. The father of Demosthenes gave his wife to one Aphobus, with a considerable portion. Aphobus took the portion, but refused to marry the woman after the death of her husband; in consequence of which her son appealed to the magistrates. The same orator engaged