the bridegroom wooed the bride with rich gifts;
Iphidamas, for instance, offers a hundred heifers and a thousand goats
as a nuptial present. But afterwards this was entirely reversed, the
father of the bride having to provide the dowry, consisting partly in
cash, partly in clothes, jewelry, and slaves. In cases of separation
the dowry had, in most cases, to be returned to the wife's parents.
The most appropriate age for contracting a marriage, Plato in his
Republic fixes, for girls, at twenty, for men, at thirty. There was,
however, no rule to this effect. Parents were naturally anxious to
dispose of their daughters as early as possible, without taking
objection to the advanced years of the wooer, as is tersely pointed
out by Aristophanes.

The actual marriage ceremony, or leading home, was preceded by
offerings to Zeus Teleios, Hera Teleia, Artemis Eukleia and other
deities protecting marriage. The bridal bath was the second ceremony,
which both bride and bridegroom had to go through previous to their
union.

On the wedding day, towards dark, after the meal at her parental home
was over,[21] the bride left the festively adorned house, and was
conducted by the bridegroom in a chariot to his dwelling. She sat
between the bridegroom and the best man chosen from among his
relatives or intimate friends. Accompanied by the sounds of the
hymenaeos, and the festive sounds of flutes and friendly acclamations
from all passers-by, the procession moved slowly towards the
bridegroom's house, also adorned with wreaths of foliage. The mother
of the bride walked behind the chariot, with the wedding torches,
kindled at the parental hearth, according to custom immemorial. At the
door of the bridegroom his mother was awaiting the young couple with
burning torches in her hand. In case no wedding meal had been served
at the bride's house, the company now sat down to it. To prognosticate
the desired fertility of the union, cakes of sesame were distributed.
The same symbolic meaning attached to the quince, which, according to
Solon's law, the bride had to eat. After the meal the couple retired
to the thalamos, where for the first time the bride unveiled herself
to her husband. Before the door of the bridal chamber epithalamia were
sung, a charming specimen of which we possess in the bridal hymn of
Helena by Theokritos. On the two first days after the wedding,
wedding-presents were received by the pair. Not till after these days
did the b