Hymen (god)

Hymenaios
God of weddings, reception, and marriage
Member of the Erotes
Hymen depicted on a Roman mosaic, Ostia Antica
AbodeMount Olympus
SymbolBridal torch
ParentsMagnes and Calliope[1]
Apollo and Calliope
Apollo and Clio
Apollo and Terpsichore
Apollo and Urania
Dionysus and unknown mother[2]
Dionysus and Ariadne[3]
Equivalents
RomanTalasius
Nicolas Poussin, Hymenaios Disguised as a Woman During an Offering to Priapus, 1634, São Paulo Museum of Art

In Greek mythology, Hymen (Ancient Greek: Ὑμήν, romanizedHumḗn), Hymenaios or Hymenaeus, is a god of marriage ceremonies who inspires feasts and song. Related to the god's name, a hymenaios is a genre of Greek lyric poetry that was sung during the procession of the bride to the groom's house in which the god is addressed, in contrast to the Epithalamium, which is sung at the nuptial threshold. He is one of the winged love gods, the Erotes.

Hymen is the son of Apollo and one of the muses, Clio or Calliope or Urania or Terpsichore.[4][5][6][7][8]

Cupid standing (left), and Hymen sitting (right). Hymen's burning torch on a Napoleonic wedding medal of 1807. It commemorates the marriage of Napoleon's youngest brother Jérôme Bonaparte to Princess Catharina of Württemberg at Fontainebleau.
  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Metamorphoses was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Medea was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference ServEclg was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca 33.67
  5. ^ Vatican Scholiast on Euripides' Rhesus, 895 (ed. Dindorf)
  6. ^ Scholiast on Pindar's Pythian Odes 4.313
  7. ^ Alciphron, Epistles 1.13.3
  8. ^ Tzetzes. Chiliades 8.599