#writing: anakalypteria

[oldxenomorph]

anakalypteria (part one)

pairing: nyx/the reaper emperor warnings: sexual content (sex with an eldritch entity, tentacles, size difference, subtle transformation), 18+ summary: zagreus asks nyx if she has a companion, a partner, someone who she loves and calls significant other. the question brings forth the memory of her and the emperor when the universe was young.

Desire turned into hunger; eager to make domains of each other’s bodies, eager to worship each other, eager to be inside each other.

---

480 BCE (100 YEARS AFTER THIS CYCLE’S DISCOVERY OF THE CITADEL)

“Don’t you ever get lonely down here, Nyx…?” Zagreus asks.

It was rare to find Nyx in the House’s lounge, away from her corner of irises and lilacs in the East Wing. A moment’s reprieve from responsibilities, she was drawn to the idea of enjoying a drink by herself, to be alone in her thoughts. Yet even in the company of others, Nyx is always alone in her thoughts, always drifting back to something beyond this domain. The ache of yearning, a longing that pulled at her, like gravity.

Routine has returned to the House of Hades, though some things still needed to be dealt with. The thousands of years since what happened has left changes in its wake, changes that the House needed to adapt to, to ensure that what happened does not repeat itself. On the surface, the timeline of human history continues, mostly news of another war that manages to trickle its way down into this dark place within the Earth.

The primordial goddess cast her eerie, starlight gaze upon the Prince of the Underworld, turning her head slightly towards him. The stars about her head blink like eyes, they glitter with the incandescence of celestial bodies that will one day collapse into black holes. Bright, pulsing, heavy. She merely studies him, sensing that he was not done speaking.

“For companionship, I mean.”

Her eyes shift away from Zagreus to the glass on the table before her, regarding his question with silence. The shimmering indigo liquid mimics the great vastness of the dark sky, her darkness that swallows the Sun and blankets the Earth. It swarmed within the glass, folding in on itself an infinite number of times, the particles never settling, noise in the liquid keeping it churning; the signs of Her presence were everywhere, they would never leave the goddess again, even in Her slumbering state.

---

THE COSMIC DARK AGE (370,000 YEARS AFTER THE BIRTH OF THE UNIVERSE)

<How would you like me to touch you?>

Nyx looked up at the Emperor, taking in all of her great form.

The entity had many arms, ten to be exact, each with hands that had long and sharp and spidery fingers. An elongated and segmented body with hundreds of legs. Her exterior was black and chitinous, biomechanical in nature. Ten large tentacles, emerging from the Emperor’s back, curling around her body and her environment; they supported her great shape and extended her reach beyond the veils that concealed this space. A face, pale like a white star, with red eyes and black lips that when pulled back in a smile revealed sharp black teeth and tentacles deep within her mouth, black and writhing and slick from the blessed tar within her. Her face stood out amongst all the shiny blackness of her body, like the singularity of a black hole, like the ultimate point of extinction.

And black hair, beautiful and long vantablack hair.

The question was a simple one, but it still touched the heart of the goddess. It was the way it was asked, in the abyssal tone that entered her head, a softness that tempered its deepness.

Desire had been growing within both of them, Nyx had felt it the first time she was held by the Emperor’s tentacles, when her hands kept her close when they slept together, whenever she smiled, whenever she laughed, whenever she sweetly kissed her cheeks. She had felt arousal for the first time when the Emperor curled her tentacles around her, holding her close, as her great upper form moved to protectively cover her when she received a visitor. There were long stretches of time where she spent exploring the Emperor’s strange and beautiful form until she committed every detail to memory. She learned all the areas she was most sensitive, the areas where she enjoyed being touched the most, and her mind would wander; her fingers lingered a little too long in places that elicited low sounds, her eyes devoured the sight of the Emperor’s body in all its horrific glory, her mouth deepened their kisses. Desire turned into hunger; eager to make domains of each other’s bodies, eager to worship each other, eager to be inside each other.

Nyx’s long midnight black hair melted into the domain’s darkness, adorned with the glittering remains of stars from previous universes and jewels from Nyog’sothep’s own collection. Sheer fabrics threaded in every shade of violet and lavender, trimmed in gold, draped over the goddess’s form, leaving nothing to the great entity’s imagination, a delight for her eyes, beautiful and enticing. She moved closer to the Emperor and reached out to hold her face.

“You may touch me in ways that bring me pleasure, Extinction,” she said, placing a kiss on the entity’s black lips. A low sound came from the Emperor, akin to a hum, as Nyx slipped from her grasp, moving downwards, eagerly seeking that which ached beneath the being’s hard and shiny black exterior.

Her touch prompted the response of many hands slipping underneath the violet fabrics, pushing them aside to reveal all of her beautiful form. A breath left Nyx as she felt great tentacles move over the softness of her body, all of her curves. Some took turns carefully preparing her. The goddess’s objective became sidetracked as her arousal took precedence, her body responding eagerly to the way the great entity touched her. She moved as close as she could to the Emperor, leaning back against her as she was cared for, loved so much that she could not help but arch her back, let out moans and gasps as pleasure surged through her.

In the midst of the haze of lust that filled her mind, Nyx turned her body around and returned to what she originally wanted: she slipped her fingers between sections of the Emperor’s biomechanical carapace, and coaxed out her arousal.

---

“Why do you ask such a question, child?” The Night finally speaks, her voice ancient and ethereal.

Zagreus sits in the chair across from her. There is a slight quirk of Nyx’s brow. The Prince rarely stops moving. It is even rarer for him to sit down or sleep in his own bed, unless his beloveds beckon for him to join them, and the sounds of their lovemaking leak out from his doorless chambers. Ever restless, even after all this time and everything this House has gone through.

“Because… I mean, just look at you, you’re very beautiful, the Night Herself! There’s nothing you can’t do.” He gestures to her, all of her, before pausing. Nyx watches his hands as they then smooth over the tiles embedded in the tabletop, the way he briefly glances down in thought before raising his head once more, the fire-licked laurels in his coal black hair flicking embers and ash into the air with every movement. “When I was younger, I thought you and father, you know, but… is there not someone else?”

Nyx retains a painfully neutral expression. She has heard this before, a rumor she had tolerated over the years because it protected Persephone. Sometimes, it ate at her and when it did, the House bore the subtle changes that reflected her mood; rooms that were colder than they ought to be, skeletal faces in the walls making sour expressions, the grout between the tiles rotting and turning black. It should not have bothered her, but the truth is, it had.

It makes the waiting all the more torturous.

Things are different now. Hades and Persephone enjoy their existence together, with their children. Motherhood had been denied to the Queen of the Underworld twice. Nyx admires her determination to make up for lost time. She watched from her corner of the House how Persephone held her children a little more closely, how she touched their faces, how she often told them how much she loved them. Such sights always brought a small smile to the primordial goddess’s lips.

A hum leaves Nyx, the soft vibrations of sound coming from a warmth deep within her chest, her mind lingering on the question: Is there not someone else? She has kept many secrets from Zagreus, most of them for his own well being. She has kept many secrets from her own children, also for their well being. Secrets safeguarded behind her stoic expression and long silences.

“Surely that is not the only reason why you are curious.” Nyx pries open his motivation, seeking out the origin to the Prince’s fascination with her personal life. (This was not the first time.) Her hand rests on the stem of the glass with her drink.

---

The Emperor ached in her hand, the delicate nature of Nyx’s touch made it throb. The goddess felt the way the great being’s body moved against her hand, seeking more from her, how it became hard and desperate to be within her. All just from her touch, all from her love. It was the Night’s turn to prepare her, carnal desire coiling tight in her core at the sight of the Emperor aching and needy in her hands. Nyx lowered herself to place kisses upon the Emperor’s body, her lips leaving violet imprints upon the oil black chitinous material. She marked the Great Lord of Extinction as hers. She could stay like this forever, kissing her and devouring her until her jaw was sore, until all the stars died.

When the entity removed her tentacles, the goddess made a soft whine at the feeling of emptiness. Hands touched her face, long fingers eagerly moving over her body, their sharp ends tantalizing against her soft and sensitive skin. For a being of such immense power, the Emperor was gentle and tender with Nyx. She asked for permission and the Night Incarnate gave it, wholeheartedly, enthusiastically.

Shifting her position so she was laying down on her back, Nyx took the invitation to climb on top of the Emperor. Seeing the great entity beneath her made her heart thump, ichor rushing in her veins, warm anticipation swarming in her fingertips. Many hands guided the goddess, holding her as the Emperor slowly and carefully eased herself inside. Nyx let out a sound, a moan that came from deep within her, leaving her lungs upon an exhale. The jewel of darkness on her forehead pulsed. Her hunger, her desire, her dreams, her love all coalesced into a singular mass of heat in her body; it consumed her every thought until all she could think about was her need to have the Emperor, to fully claim her, to ride her, to fuck her.

Violet lips parted in an attempt to speak, but all that came out was a breathy moan. Any words she might have had were replaced by ethereal songs of carnal delight as her body acclimated to the entity’s size and strangeness. She sank her fingers into the biomechanical nature of the Emperor’s body, gripping anything she could hold onto, eventually finding the hands of her beloved, a set held out just for her to take, to have, to kiss. Her starlight eyes became glazed with that deep lust for the Emperor, gold like a main sequence star, intense and with the intent of having all of Extinction within her.

<You are so beautiful, O Night.> The Emperor’s voice crawled through her mind. Long fingers pushed back strands of Nyx’s beautiful, midnight black hair, the young stars shivering and dancing along them. Hands cupped her face lovingly. One gently traced the curve of her jaw and drew a line from her chin to her sternum between her heavy breasts that caught her breath. <My beloved Nyx. You will be my wife. I will make you my Empress, my Eternal Night.>

The Emperor began to move. The Night opened up, full of stars, full of darkness.

---

Zegreus casts his mismatched eyes to the side for a moment and furrows his brows slightly, as if in deep thought, trying to find the words he wants to say. Nyx is about to drink until she notices his expression and sets down her glass.

“I was told that something, or someone, helped Melinoë,” Zagreus says at last. The world comes to a crawl, the night on the surface grows longer, the tides pull back farther than they normally would, stars within major constellations begin to go out. Nyx watches Zagreus’s hands as they fold together, fingers slipping between fingers. Her expression softens slightly as she observes him. “She didn’t say much, other than they were specifically very worried about you.”

For a moment, Nyx wonders if Melinoë was keeping certain details about her crusade against Chronos a secret from her brother, to spare him the long story or things that even she had a hard time articulating. Gruesome things that only a goddess of nightmares could have seen like an age that has yet to come; the end of humanity, the end of Earth.

Nyx does her best to maintain her face’s neutral expression. But her eyes soften, starlight glitters. Pressure builds in her chest, it migrates its way to her throat. Nyx knows how worried and anxious and terrified She was, Nyog’sothep told her when she held out the black centipede to her. She remembers how She refused to leave her, Her segmented form and many legs clinging to her arm, her dress, hiding as jewelry, beautiful and deadly. The Night would run her fingers over Her little body while she worked, to comfort Her, to tell Her that she was here.

Lips part to intake a deep breath, pushing her emotions down into her gut for now.

“Many people were worried about us,” Nyx says. It is all she wants to say. She thinks about Chaos, who took on her features out of love for her and was the first to try and get her back. She thinks about Nyog’sothtep who did the unthinkable: she intervened, descended upon the Crossroads to look after the black centipede and gave the Princess boons of power.

“I know, but…. The way Melinoë spoke about them felt different.” Zagreus pauses, his mouth forming a line as he remembers something. “Thanatos always told me that, to his knowledge, it was just you, by yourself. But, I don’t think that’s entirely true.”

The Night Incarnate's lips displayed a ghost of a smile. There is silence at first and then the Night Incarnate finally takes a drink from her glass. She drinks everything.

---

Nyx’s hands moved over the Emperor’s abdomen. She marveled at the way her pale hands looked against the Emperor’s pitch black exterior and at the reactions to her touch. The entity’s hands filled themselves with Nyx’s flesh, caressed her, the sharp ends of long fingers making her cry out in pleasure when they grazed over sensitive areas. Tentacles spread out beneath the Emperor’s body like thick veins. The goddess’s golden starlight eyes intensified with empowerment; an awakening inside her at the sight of this almighty being writhing underneath her, hands worshiping every part of her. She watched the Emperor’s red and black eyes, how they were glazed with an insatiable lust for her, the red nuclear fusion buzzing with love for her and only her.

Every sound that spilled from the Night's lips, every time her beautiful hands gripped and explored her shape, every time their hips met, made the Emperor throb. She held onto her own tentacles, her black mouth parted to let out a deep, rumbling moan, the sound of gravity greedily pulling the Night closer.

<Nyx...>

How the Night herself wanted to run her fingers through the Emperor’s black hair, how she wanted to kiss her mouth. Instead she sank her fingers and her darkness into every biomechanical groove, moving tenderly and lovingly over every texture. Her touch caused the entity’s many legs to twitch, causing her hips to buck sharply, her great body coiling and tightening, her great head pressing back into the cushions surrounding her as the Night’s name was moaned again and again. Her deliberate, careful pace from before became faster.

The Night placed a hand in the middle of the Emperor’s body, commanding her to slow down. The entity obeyed her beloved goddess.

“You are mine, Extinction,” Nyx said, her ethereal voice cutting through the heady atmosphere, the cold air made heavy and warm by their lovemaking. She held the sides of the Emperor’s waist and began to move her hips, truly riding the great entity now. The red and black eyes of Extinction devoured the sight of Night claiming her, using her body to satisfy her deepest ache, enthralled by her beauty in the midst of pleasure. Nyx was pure splendor, the endless void, consumed by an eternal desire and driven to make this great entity hers. Love thickened the ichor in her veins, it made the darkness pulse. “All mine.”

Nyx continued her steady pace, reveling in how the Emperor felt within her. Extinction gave herself completely to the Night, letting her take complete control of her body, encouraging her to take everything she wanted. She existed for the Night’s pleasure.

A low groan came from the great being, a deep sound that came from within her. Nyx felt the vibrations underneath her fingers, pressure within her core mounting, love tightening in her gut. She moved her fingers upwards to find new, untouched textures and grooves in the Emperor’s exterior. When she slipped her fingers into the spaces underneath where her chest began, it caused the entity to buck upwards, desperately seeking more of Nyx, more friction, more and more.

<O Night, my Nyx.>

The Night's hands slipped away from the Emperor’s body to find a set of her hands, holding them, sliding her fingers between those that held her, loved her, worshipped her.

“Give me everything, Extinction. Make me yours.”

The Emperor’s upper body shifted to a slightly upright position, tentacles moving to support her body. Nyx let out a pleasurable gasp as more tentacles wrapped around her waist, joining the hands that held the goddess in place. From the Emperor’s mouth, black tentacles emerge, dripping with the black tar, annihilation in its purest form, thick and viscous and dark. Her moans became deeper, abyssal, as she desperately sought release, eager to fill the goddess. The feeling of the material sliding down her chest nearly sent Nyx over the edge. She pressed her head against the Emperor’s chest as pleasure completely took over her body, as her core opened up the closer she approached her zenith.

With a single motion, Extinction buried herself deep within the Night and gave her everything, Nyx’s name whispered and moaned and crooned from every direction all at once, repeatedly, lovingly. The black tar filled the goddess, thick darkness spreading throughout her cells, into her veins, devouring the golden ichor, swallowing, swarming, consuming. The darkness of the Black Palace pulsated, thrummed in tandem with the Emperor's arousal as it gifted Nyx her material. It felt like her atoms were being drenched in total darkness, extinction claiming her very foundation. The Night began to change, pulled closer and closer to the Emperor.

Nyx could hear everything inside the Emperor: the immensity of her thoughts, the supermassive black hole singing in her chest, the pulse of her desire, the sound of the black tar traveling through her body, the way her breathing and her abyssal groans were further distorted by the tentacles in her mouth. She could hear the roar of her own golden ichor rushing to meet the Emperor's black material, gold eagerly accepting its destiny, eager to be completely consumed.

Sound completely ceased when Nyx came. Black and wet tentacles from the Emperor’s mouth sought her flesh, the sets of hands on her body that urged her towards the event horizon, helped her cross that threshold as pleasure took hold of her body, her senses, everything. She needed Extinction to always be within her, she never wanted to leave her embrace, she always wanted to be engulfed and surrounded by the Emperor’s body, her power, her presence. Her amethyst lips formed the word that was the true name of the Emperor, a sound only to be heard only by them, a word whispered at the end of a long moan, her orgasm intense. Even when it ended, she ground and rocked her hips a little more, needing to ride that final wave of pleasure, that last surge, her core wanting more and more and more. And the Emperor happily gave Nyx every last atom.

When she was completely spent, the Emperor laid back down. Her hands helped Nyx separate from her, not wanting her to spend any more energy. The goddess was even more beautiful now that the Emperor’s black material was inside her; her golden eyes were brighter, her skin was colder, faint black veins could be seen beneath the expanse of her pale flesh, a darkness swarmed within the jewel on her forehead, mixing with the pulsating violet. Subtle changes, but still a beautiful transformation, a sight only for the Emperor to enjoy and cherish.

The goddess looked down to admire her work, this great and all powerful entity that she claimed. Her chest rose and fell with every breath, her own heart pounding, hammering as the black tar began to reach it. The Emperor covered in the Night’s markings, her black hair splayed out and dripping over cushions, her strange body made boneless and lazy from their lovemaking, tentacles tired and slipping from Nyx’s body, multitudes of legs curling inwards. Her red and black eyes looked up at Nyx, eyes full of love and adoration.

“You belong to me, Extinction.” Nyx crawled forward until she was closer to the Emperor’s upper body, her hands cupping the entity’s face. “You are so beautiful.” Nyx kissed the Emperor with a possessive tenderness, a hunger. “I love you.”

<You are mine and I am yours, O Night. My beautiful, beloved Night.> The entity kissed the goddess back as she ran her fingers through her beautiful hair, Nyog’sothep’s jewels and stars still glittering amongst the midnight black strands. She pressed her forehead against Nyx's, her many arms pulling her closer, a hand also cupping the goddess’s face. <I love you.>

---

Nyx sets the drinkware down in front of her. The empty glass makes Zagreus blink at first, then his eyes widen slightly as he looks at the primordial goddess.

A little bit of courage, though it is not the kind she usually likes. Her face remains impassive, a mask she’s worn for eight million years. Nyx counts the millennia and thankfully, there is only a little more than a few left. As soon as humanity leaves antiquity, they will race towards the stars. Everything will happen quickly and all at once. And then things will be the way they were meant to be, the world will be bent into the right shape.

She will have the only thing she has ever wanted.

The waiting reminds her that she remains a prisoner of time, waiting and waiting and waiting. In the dark of her heart, she is a selfish thing that only wants her beloved to awaken, to have all of her majesty and horror all to herself. The Great Family promises she will have what she wants; some nights, even she misses the way the family would bless her cheeks and hands, how they would hold her face, how they would honor her and worship her.

Nyx stands and looks down at Zagreus, her amethyst lips offering a slight smile.

“Well,” she says, “I am the Night, as you observe. The night conceals all. I know nothing of the loneliness which you describe, for I have a companion, an eternal beloved. Additionally, this entire realm… it is a part of me. And its many subjects sprang forth from me, alone.”

“I see-- Wait.” Zagreus rises from his seat, trying to catch Nyx before she leaves the lounge. “There really is someone? Who is it, Nyx?”

The Night Incarnate stops just before crossing the threshold separating the lounge from the rest of the House. She turns her body slightly, looking over her shoulder, capturing Zagreus in the eerie illumination of her eyes, piercing whilst in shadow. Nyx knows her answer will not satisfy his curiosity, rather it will only fuel it. The knowledge will eat at him.

Melinoë is right to keep the truth from him. He will have to wait.

“You will see. In due time.”

[thegrapeandthefig]

Dissecting ancient Greek wedding customs (or “How to adapt the clusterfuck they are into something somewhat doable for the 21st century”)

This post is going to be a bit different. I could stick to writing about the customs we know of from a purely historical perspective, and while it would be informative, it wouldn’t reflect what I’ve actually been up to. Some of you might already know, but I’m getting married, so I approached this topic with the intent of seeing what I could do (and get away with).

So this post is going to be more about method and the practical challenges that come with doing the groundwork of adapting very old (and often outdated) traditions in a way that makes sense for our modern times.

I do have some disclaimers to make before I get started:

Most (if not all) of the literature around ancient Greek marriage is hetero-normative. However, this does NOT mean that marriage rites shouldn’t be adapted for queer marriages or that queer marriages can’t be done within Hellenic paganism. It’s our job as reconstructionists and revivalists to rework and adapt to our needs.

Similarly, this post is bound to mention or detail cult practices that are no longer in line with our modern sensibilities. I also want to make it clear that this post is not a tutorial. I’m not saying how things should be done, I’m only exposing elements that I consider reworkable and propose suggestions so that it can help others make their own research and decisions, with the level of historicity that they deem fit.

While the wedding customs from fifth century BC Athens are decently known, the ones from other cities and regions of Greece are much more obscure outside of anecdotal and fragmentary details (with the exception of Sparta). For this reason, the Athenian example is what I’ll be using as foundation. If you reconstruct practices from other areas of the Greek World, you might find something valuable in this article: The Greek Wedding Outside of Athens and Sparta: The Evidence from Ancient Texts by Katia Margariti.

Basic/simplified structure

The typical Athenian wedding would spread over three days, and be marked by several steps, some of which are listed below. Note that the order of these steps is not precisely known and might have been flexible:

Pre-wedding:

Decorating: korythale at the door, decoration of the nuptial bedroom

The Proteleia

Filling of the loutrophoros

Wedding day

Nuptial bath

Adornment of the bride

Wedding Feast

Hymenaios

Anakalypteria

Nymphagogia

Katachysmata

Day after

Epaulia

Gamelia

Final sacrifices

Some of these steps included specific customs and traditions, not all of which are reconstructible for various reasons.

Decorations

The korythale: the korythale was a sprig, usually from an olive tree (or laurel), which was placed at the groom’s door (and perhaps the bride’s too). The word in interpreted as deriving from “koros” and “thallein”, which would translate “youth-blossom”.

The korythale is very reminiscent of the eiresione, which was a similar kind of branch of laurel used during the Thargelia and/or the Pyanepsia that had apotropaic purposes. Athenian weddings included a procession from the bride’s home to the groom’s house, so the presence of the korythale at the doors would indicate that a wedding was taking place involving the decorated homes.

While I haven’t seen any one make this interpretation, I would still be tempted to argue that decorating the thresholds of houses has a similar protective and luck-bringing purpose than the eiresione, which was also hung above the door of Athenian houses.

The thalamos (nuptial bedroom): While there is no doubt the houses were properly decorated for the occasion, we have mention of special care given to the nuptial bedroom.

It’s important to understand that the procession from the bride’s house to the groom’s went up to the bedroom door, it was generally an important location and its preparation is seen represented on ancient pottery. Euripides mentions the adornment of the bed with fine fabrics, while Theocritus mentions the smell of myrrh (sacred to Aphrodite). There is also evidence that, in the Imperial period, the practice of hanging curtains to create a canopy above the bed was adopted, very likely from Egypt.

When it comes to adapting this today, it is pretty straightforward and there is plenty of room for personalization. The korythale could be challenging depending on how easily available olive or laurel are in your area. I would also argue that the custom could be more loosely adapted so that instead of being at the houses’ doors, it could take the form of a floral arrangement at the door of whatever venue you are using.

Proteleia

In short, the proteleia refers to sacrifices and offerings that would be made to various gods before the wedding. The exact timing of these is more or less unknown, but we have reasons to believe they could be done a day or a few days before the wedding, and perhaps also on the day of the wedding. These offerings were made independently by each family.

It is in this context that the offering of a lock of hair and of childhood items is best known for brides. The recipients of the offerings are varied: In Athens the most mentioned are the Nymphs and Artemis, but various sacrifices to Aphrodite, Hera, Athena and Zeus were also performed. In other parts of Greece, pre-nuptial customs often included sacrifices to local heroines. Plutarch, in the 2nd century AD (and therefore way after the focus of this post) mentions the main five nuptial deities to be Zeus Teleios, Hera Teleia, Aphrodite, Peitho and Artemis.

Today, I believe the exact choice of who to offer to and what to offer very much comes down to personal preferences and circumstances. While we assume that both families made prenuptial sacrifices, we know very little of the groom’s side of things, since the focus was on the bride, and the rite of passage aspect was not present for the groom in Ancient times. This is a gap that leaves room for modern innovation eg. including Apollon to either replace or accompany Artemis or choosing a group of deities that is more couple-centric rather than family-centric.

Personally, I have settled on Aphrodite, Hera and Artemis and have integrated a Spartan custom that includes the mother of the bride in the sacrifice to Aphrodite. Hera Teleia will receive a lock of my current hair, while Artemis will receive a lock of hair from my first haircut as a child (that my mother has kept all these years), alongside some other trinkets. The groom will honour Zeus Teleios in a passive way. And I will honour the Nymphs through the the rite I will explain next.

Nuptial baths

Both bride and groom had a ritual bath before the wedding. Its purpose was of cleansing and purificatory nature, and is consistent with other water-based pre-sacrifice purifications. What made the bride and groom's baths distinctive was their preparation. The bath water used to be drawn at a specific spring or river. At Athens, the water for bridal baths came from the Enneakrounos, the fountain house for the spring Kallirrhoe, but each city had its dedicated source. The water was carried in a special vase named the loutrophoros (bathcarrier) and the act of fetching the water and bringing it back to the homes constituted a procession. The loutrophoros was often given as offering to the altar of the Nymphs after the wedding. It was an important symbol of marriage, to the point that, if a woman died before being married, she would often be buried with a loutrophoros.

This will be more or less difficult to adapt depending on circumstances and environment, but the logic of a purifying bath (or shower even) can be kept (though I would discourage bathing in water you are not sure of the cleanliness of). The idea of having a specific vessel can also be kept. Personally, I plan to have a special vessel for some type of purified water, and while I may not bathe in it, I plan to sprinkle it and/or wash my hands with it.

Adornment of the bride (and groom)

Traditionally, the bride would have a nympheutria (which we could equate as a bridesmaid, but seems to have often been a female relative) charged of helping the bride get ready. I won’t get into the details of the clothing we know about, mostly because there seems to be a lot of variation, and because I consider this to be a very personal choice. However, we can note that both groom and bride were adorned with a wreath or a garland of plants that were considered to have powers appropriate for the occasion (sesame, mint, plants that were generally considered fertile or aphrodisiac). Perfume is also something attested for both bride and groom, especially the scent of myrrh. The bride would wear a crown, the stephane, which could be made out of metal or be vegetal (the stephane is now the object of its own crowning ceremony in Greek Orthodox weddings). The bride’s shoes were also particular for the event, and named nymphides. The bride’s veil was placed above the crown.

Hymenaios and Feast

I am grouping these two since they are linked. The feast was more or less the peak of the wedding ceremony and lively with music and dances, as Plutarch indicates (Moralia, [Quaest. conv.] 666f-67a):

But a wedding feast is given away by the loud cries of the Hymenaios and the torch and the pipes, things that Homer says are admired and watched even by women who stand at their doors.

The hymenaios was a sung hymn in honour of the couple and the wedding, and there were other songs that were specifically sung at weddings. However the hymenaios wasn’t only for the feast, these songs would be sung also during the processions. The hymenaios also had the purpose of ritually blessing the couple, a ritual that bore the name of makarismos.

As for the feast, it was obviously abundant with food and the prenuptial sacrifices provided the meat that would be served. There is otherwise very little difference with what a modern wedding feast would be like: food, drink, music and dance around which gathered friends and relatives of the couple. Like today, the wedding cake(s) was an important part of the celebration. It was called sesame and consisted of sesame seeds, ground and mixed with honey and formed into cakes to be shared with the guests.

Anakalypteria

Note that there is a bit of a debate around this step, which is the unveiling of the bride. Some believe the bride kept her face veiled until this part of the wedding, where her face would be uncovered for the groom to see. Others interpret this step the other way around, where the bride is then veiled as a result of being now married. The timing of the unveiling is also up for the debate. It might have been during the feast (at nightfall), or after once the couple was escorted to the bridal chamber. There doesn’t seem to be a clear consensus.

The concept of unveiling the bride is otherwise something that isn’t unknown to us as a modern audience. As with everything else, how to interpret and modernize it is up to personal preference.

Nymphagogia and Katachysmata

The nymphagogia aka the act of “leading the bride to her new home” took place at night, likely after the feast. It is at this point that the groom ritually led the bride to his home by taking her by the wrist in a ritual gesture known as χεῖρ’ ἐπὶ καρπῷ (cheir’ epi karpo). The relatives and friends of the couple formed a festive procession that accompanied them to their new home accompanied by music and songs. The mother of the bride led the procession carrying lit torches, while the groom’s mother awaited for the new couple in their home, also bearing lit torches.

Once there, the rite of the katachysmata would happen. The couple would be sat near the hearth and the guests would pour dried fruits, figs and nuts over the bride and groom as a way to incorporate them into the household and bless the union with prosperity and fertility. As part of this rite, the bride ate a fruit (either an apple, quince or pomegranate). It is only after this step that the couple would be escorted to the bridal chamber.

These two rites are tricky to adapt in a modern context because of how location-specific they are (and that’s not even taking into account the implications of having family escort you to your bedroom etc). My take would be that the katachysmata is not too far off from the custom of throwing rice/flowers at the couple after the ceremony, and could probably be incorporated as such. The torches could also be replaced by any source of light placed in a meaningful location, depending on the where the wedding is being held. The nymphagogia could also do with an update, the easiest of which could simply be holding hands while leaving the wedding ceremony.

The day after (Epaulia, Gamelia & sacrifice)

The epaulia refers to wedding gifts to the couple, which would be given the day following the ceremony. At this point, it is implied that the couple has consummated their marriage and are officially newly-weds. Pausanias informs us that the term “epaulia” (also?) refers to the gifts brought by the bride’s father in particular and included the dowry.

After the epaulia, the bride's incorporation into her husband's house was complete. This might have been when the groom held a feast for his phratria (aka direct family), as a way to conclude the wedding.

As for final sacrifices, the bride herself may have marked the end of her wedding by dedicating her loutrophoros at the sanctuary of Nymphe, south of the Acropolis.

The epaulia could be adapted, in modern terms, with having a registry. Should someone choose to have a specific vessel linked to the ritual bath today, it could very well be kept, dedicated to the Nymphs and used as a small shrine. Considering how symbolic the object is, there is also room for it to become a piece of family heirloom.

Final words

This is really only a small summary of what a wedding could have looked like, sprinkled with a few ideas of how to manage the gaps, discrepancies and limitations. As I said in my introductions, there are details I haven’t mentioned. Some of the customs detailed here have clear modern counterparts, but others don’t. I’d like to conclude by addressing these.

First, the ancient Greek (Athenian) wedding is completely devoid of priestly participation. It was entirely planned, organized and led by the two families. Religious responsibilities were entirely self-managed. I find this point important to remember because it makes it much more accessible than if modern Hellenic pagans had to seek out an external authority.

Some of you might have noticed the absence of wedding vows, at least in a formal form like the one we are used to in our modern days (derived from Christian and Jewish traditions), this is not an oversight, there simply were none that we know of. As a sidenote, I would also advise against turning a wedding vow into a formal oath. I’m still debating on what to do myself, but I’m leaning towards a religiously non-binding vow that won’t curse me should things go wrong.

Adapting the structures and rites of the ancient wedding to today’s framework of ceremony will naturally lead to changing the order of things, on top of sacrificing elements for the sake of simplicity, practicality, personal preferences and, very likely, visibility. Unless you’re lucky enough to do a private elopement, chances are that relatives and friends might be there, and not all might know or even approve of your faith. I hope this post shows that there can be ways to include traditional religious elements that will go unnoticed to the untrained eye, like I hope it showed that the private nature of the ancient Greek wedding rites is a significant advantage for modernization.