An epithalamium is a poem written specifically to celebrate a bride on her way to the marital chamber, its name combining the Greek words for upon and nuptial chamber. The form was popular throughout classical antiquity, with a notable example by the Roman poet Catullus possibly drawing on earlier work by Sappho, and some scholars have even proposed that the biblical Song of Songs is itself an epithalamium composed for Solomon's marriage.
Facts
Place of OriginAncient Greece, later adapted by Roman poets such as Catullus; the tradition was revived in the Italian and English Renaissance, notably by Edmund Spenser. 1 Notable ExampleCatullus's Marriage of Thetis and Peleus, modeled on a lost ode of Sappho, and Edmund Spenser's Epithalamion (1595), written for his own wedding and among the most admired examples of the form in English. 1 Defining TraitA poem composed specifically to celebrate a bride on her way to the marital chamber, traditionally sung by a chorus of young men and women at the door of the nuptial chamber. 1 Sources
1. Epithalamium (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationLead section, second sentence
This form continued in popularity through the history of the classical world; the Roman poet Catullus wrote a famous epithalamium, which may have been translated from or at least inspired by a now-lost work of Sappho.
History section
It was originally among the Greeks a song in praise of bride and bridegroom, sung by a number of boys and girls at the door of the nuptial chamber.
Development as a literary form section, Spenser
Perhaps no poem of this class has been more universally admired than the pastoral Epithalamion of Edmund Spenser (1595), though he also has important rivals
Development as a literary form section, Greek masters
Sappho, Anacreon, Stesichorus and Pindar are all regarded as masters of the species, but the finest example preserved in Greek literature is the 18th Idyll of Theocritus, which celebrates the marriage of Menelaus and Helen.
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