View source for Religion:Hymen (god)

{{Short description|Ancient Greek god of marriage ceremonies}}
{{Infobox deity
| type = Greek
| name = Hymenaios
| image = Hymenaios Terme di Nettuno Ostia Antica 2006-09-08.jpg
| alt = 
| caption = Hymen depicted on a Roman mosaic, Ostia Antica
| god_of = God of weddings, reception, and marriage
| member_of = the [[Religion:Erotes|Erotes]]
| abode = Mount Olympus
| symbol = Bridal torch
| consort = 
| parents = Magnes and Calliope<ref name="Metamorphoses"/><br />[[Unsolved:Apollo|Apollo]] and Calliope<br />[[Unsolved:Apollo|Apollo]] and Clio <br /> [[Unsolved:Apollo|Apollo]] and Terpsichore <br /> [[Unsolved:Apollo|Apollo]] and [[Astronomy:Urania|Urania]] <br />[[Religion:Dionysus|Dionysus]] and unknown mother<ref name="Medea"/><br />[[Religion:Dionysus|Dionysus]] and Ariadne<ref name=ServEclg/>
| children = 
| mount = 
| Roman_equivalent = [[Religion:Talasius|Talasius]]
}}

[[File:Poussin - hymenaeus01.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Nicolas Poussin, ''Hymenaios Disguised as a Woman During an Offering to Priapus,'' 1634, São Paulo Museum of Art]]
'''Hymen''' ({{lang-grc|Ὑμήν}}), '''Hymenaios''' or '''Hymenaeus''', in Hellenistic religion, is a god of [[Biology:Marriage|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 [[Religion:Erotes|Erotes]].

Hymen is the son of [[Unsolved:Apollo|Apollo]] and one of the muses, Clio or Calliope or [[Astronomy:Urania|Urania]] or Terpsichore.<ref name="auto3">Nonnus, ''Dionysiaca'' 33.67</ref><ref name="auto1">Vatican Scholiast on Euripides' Rhesus, 895 (ed. Dindorf)</ref><ref name="auto">Scholiast on Pindar's Pythian Odes 4.313</ref><ref name="auto2">Alciphron, ''Epistles'' 1.13.3</ref><ref name="auto4">Tzetzes. ''Chiliades'' 8.599</ref>

[[File:Napoleonic Wedding Medal Fontainebleau 1807, Reverse.jpg|thumb|right|[[Religion:Cupid|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.]]

==Etymology==
Hymen's name is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *''syuh₁-men''-, "to sew together," hence, "joiner;" it is also recorded in Doric Greek as Ῡ̔μᾱ́ν (''Hyman''). The term ''hymen'' was also used for a thin skin or membrane such as the [[Biology:Hymen|hymen]], which covers the vaginal opening and was traditionally supposed to be broken by [[Biology:Sexual intercourse|sexual intercourse]] after a woman's (first) marriage. The membrane's name was, therefore, not directly connected to that of the god, but they shared the same root and in [[Social:Folk etymology|folk etymology]] were sometimes supposed to be related.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/hymen#:~:text=hymen%20(n.)&text=1580s%2C%20Greek%20god%20of%20marriage,two%20together)%3B%20see%20hymen.|title = Hymen &#124; Origin and meaning of hymen by Online Etymology Dictionary}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tYqt2rBOUqsC&q=%22syu-men%22+hymen|title=The Incredibles|first=Disney|last=Staff|date=March 19, 2004|publisher=Scholastic|isbn=9780717277612|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Y0DAAAAQAAJ&q=hymen+dictionary&pg=PA176|title=An Illustrated Dictionary of Scientific Terms|first=William|last=Rossiter|date=March 19, 1879|publisher=William Collins, Sons, and Company|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.etymologynerd.com/1/post/2020/11/sewing-hymens.html|title=SEWING HYMENS|website=THE ETYMOLOGY NERD}}</ref>

==Function and representation==
Hymen is supposed to attend every wedding. If he did not, the marriage would supposedly prove disastrous and so the Greeks would run about calling his name aloud. He presided over many of the weddings in [[Religion:Greek mythology|Greek mythology]], for all the deities and their children.

Hymen is celebrated in the ancient marriage song of unknown origin (called a Hymenaios) ''Hymen o Hymenae, Hymen'' delivered by G. Valerius Catullus.[[File:George Rennie Cupid Rekindling the Torch of Hymen at the V and A 2008.jpg|thumb|''Cupid Rekindling the Torch of Hymen'', a sculpture by George Rennie]]

==Mythology==
Hymen was mentioned in Euripides's ''The Trojan Women'' in which Cassandra says:
{{blockquote|Bring the light, uplift and show its flame! I am doing the god's service, see! I making his shrine to glow with tapers bright. O Hymen, king of marriage! blest is the bridegroom; blest am I also, the maiden soon to wed a princely lord in Argos. Hail Hymen, king of marriage!}}

Hymen is also mentioned in Virgil's ''Aeneid'' and in seven plays by William Shakespeare: ''Hamlet'',<ref>ln. 3.2.147.</ref> ''The Tempest'', ''Much Ado about Nothing'',<ref>In 5.3.</ref> ''Titus Andronicus'', ''Pericles, Prince of Tyre'', ''Timon of Athens'' and ''As You Like It'', where he joins the couples at the end&nbsp;—
{{blockquote|Tis Hymen peoples every town;<br />High wedlock then be honoured.<br />Honour, high honour, and renown,<br />To Hymen, god of every town!}}

Hymen also appears in the work of the 7th- to 6th-century BCE Greek poet [[Biology:Sappho|Sappho]] (translation: M. L. West, ''Greek Lyric Poetry'', Oxford University Press):
{{blockquote|High must be the chamber&nbsp;–<br />Hymenaeum!<br />Make it high, you builders!<br />A bridegroom's coming&nbsp;–<br />Hymenaeum!<br />Like the War-god himself, the tallest of the tall!}}

Hymen is most commonly the son of [[Unsolved:Apollo|Apollo]] and one of the Muses.<ref name="auto3"/><ref name="auto1"/><ref name="auto"/><ref name="auto2"/><ref name="auto4"/> In Seneca's play ''Medea'', he is stated to be the son of [[Religion:Dionysus|Dionysus]].<ref name="Medea">Seneca, ''Medea'' 56 ff</ref>

Other stories give Hymen a legendary origin. In one of the surviving fragments of the ''Megalai Ehoiai'' attributed to [[Biography:Hesiod|Hesiod]], it's told that Magnes "had a son of remarkable beauty, Hymenaeus. And when Apollo saw the boy, he was seized with love for him, and wouldn't leave the house of Magnes".<ref name="Metamorphoses">Antoninus Liberalis, ''Metamorphoses'' [https://topostext.org/work/216#23 23] [= [[Biography:Hesiod|Hesiod]], ''Megalai Ehoiai'' fr. 16].</ref>

Aristophanes' ''Peace'' ends with Trygaeus and the Chorus singing the wedding song, with the repeated phrase "Oh Hymen! Oh Hymenaeus!",<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.web-books.com/Classics/Nonfiction/Drama/Aristophanes/Peace/Aristophanes_PeaceP12.htm |title=Peace Page 12 |access-date=2005-11-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051201140548/http://www.web-books.com/Classics/Nonfiction/Drama/Aristophanes/Peace/Aristophanes_PeaceP12.htm |archive-date=2005-12-01 }}</ref> a typical refrain for a wedding song.<ref>Encyclopædia Britannica, ''hymen''.</ref>

Maurus Servius Honoratus, in his commentaries on Virgil's ''Eclogues'', mentions that [[Astronomy:Hesperus|Hesperus]], the Evening Star, inhabited Mount Oeta in Thessaly and that there he had loved the young Hymenaeus, son of [[Religion:Dionysus|Dionysus]] and Ariadne.<ref name=ServEclg>[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0091%3Apoem%3D8%3Acommline%3D30 Serv. Ecl. 8.30]</ref>

===Later story of origin===
According to a later romance, Hymen was an Athenian youth of great beauty but low birth who fell in love with the daughter of one of the city's wealthiest women. Since he could not speak to her or court her because of his social standing, he instead followed her wherever she went.<ref name="befd">Berens, E.M. The Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome. New York: Maynard, Merril, & Co., 1880.</ref>

Hymen disguised himself as a woman in order to join one of those processions, a religious rite at [[Biology:Eleusis|Eleusis]] in which only women went. The assemblage was captured by pirates, Hymen included. He encouraged the women and plotted strategy with them, and together, they killed their captors. He then agreed with the women to go back to [[Place:Athens|Athens]] and win their freedom if he were allowed to marry one of them. He thus succeeded in both the mission and the marriage, and his marriage was so happy that Athenians instituted festivals in his honour, and he came to be associated with marriage.<ref name="befd"/>

According to Apollodorus, "the Orphics report" that Hymenaeus was among those resurrected by [[Religion:Asclepius|Asclepius]].<ref>Apollodorus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022%3Atext%3DLibrary%3Abook%3D3%3Achapter%3D10%3Asection%3D3 3.10.3].</ref>

== In popular culture ==
At least since the [[History:Italian Renaissance|Italian Renaissance]], Hymen was generally represented in art as a young man wearing a garland of flowers and holding a burning torch in one hand.

Hymen appears as a character in the final scene of William Shakespeare's pastoral comedy ''As You Like It'' in which he presides over four weddings joining eight characters, including the play's protagonist and heroine Rosalind with her beloved Orlando.

''Hymen'' (1921) is an early book of poetry by the American modernist poet H.D. The eponymous long poem of the collection imagines an ancient Greek women's ritual for a bride.

==Sister project==

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
* Apollodorus, ''Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes.'' Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. {{ISBN|0-674-99135-4}}. [http://data.perseus.org/texts/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* Catullus, Poem 62.
* Grimal, Pierre, ''The Dictionary of Classical Mythology'', Wiley-Blackwell, 1996. {{ISBN|978-0-631-20102-1}}.
* Schmitz, Leonhard, "[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aentry%3Dhymen-bio-1 HYMEN]." In Smith, William, (ed.) ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', London (1873). [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.04.0104 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* Maas, P. "Hymenaios" ''REF'' '''9''' (1916) pp.&nbsp;130–34.
* Ovid. ''Medea'' in ''Metamorphoses'', 12.
* Virgil, ''Aeneid'', Theodore C. Williams. trans. Boston. Houghton Mifflin Co. 1910. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0054%3Abook%3D1%3Acard%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].




{{Sourceattribution|Hymen (god)}}