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HYMEN, or HYMENAEUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V14, Page 177 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HYMEN, or HYMENAEUS , originally the name of the See also:song sung at marriages among the Greeks. As usual the name gradually produced the See also:idea of an actual See also:person whose adventures gave rise to the See also:custom of this song. He occurs often in association with See also:Linus and Ialemus, who represent similar personifications, and is generally called a son of See also:Apollo and a Muse. As the son of See also:Dionysus and See also:Aphrodite, he was regarded as a See also:god of fruitfulness. In See also:Attic See also:legend he was a beautiful youth who, being in love with a girl, followed her in a procession to See also:Eleusis disguised as a woman, and saved the whole See also:band from pirates. As See also:reward he obtained the girl in See also:marriage, and his happy married See also:life caused him ever afterwards to be invoked in marriage songs (Servius on See also:Virgil, Aen. i. 651). According to another See also:story, he was a youth who was killed by the fall of his See also:house on his See also:wedding See also:day; hence he was invoked to propitiate him and avert a similar See also:fate from others (Servius, loc. cit.). He is represented in See also:works of See also:art as an effeminate-looking, winged youth, carrying a bridal See also:torch and wearing a nuptial See also:veil. The marriage song was sung, with musical See also:accompaniment, during the procession of the See also:bride from her parents' house to that of the bridegroom, Hymenaeus being invoked at the end of each portion. See R. See also:Schmidt, De Hymenaeo et Talasio (1886), and J.

A. Hild in Daremberg and Saglis's Dictionnaire See also:

des antiquites.

End of Article: HYMEN, or HYMENAEUS

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