HYMEN, or HYMENEUS, a fabulous divinity, the son of Bacchus and Venus Urania, was supposed by the ancients to preside over marriages; and accordingly was invoked in epithalamiums, and other matrimonial ceremonies, under the formula, Hymen, or Hymenee!
The poets generally crown this deity with a chaplet of roses; and represent him, as it were, dissolved and enervated with pleasures, dressed in a yellow robe and shoes of the same colour, with a torch in his hand.—Catullus, in one of his epigrams, addresses him thus:
Cinge tempora floribus
Suaveolentis amaraci.
It was for this reason, that the new-married couple bore garlands of flowers on the wedding-day: which custom also obtained among the Hebrews, and even among Christians, during the first ages of the church, as appears from Tertullian, De corona militari, where he says, Coronant et nuptiae sponsos.—S. Chrysostom, likewise mentions these crowns of flowers; and to this day the Greeks call marriage εὑραμία, in respect of this crown or garland.