Gaius Valerius Catullus, Carmen LXII

Roman bride in wedding procession Nupta, Wedding of Bellerophon & Philonoe
Roman mosaic, House of the Nymphs
Tunesia, 4th century CE

A Roman bride, mute and absent, dominates Catullus' second nuptial poem, an epithalamium like its predecessor Carmen 61 "The Marriage of Vinia and Manlius." However, the bride in Carmen 62 is unnamed, described only through similes, and, despite petitions from the chorus of iuventes who will escort her to her eager bridegroom's home, she appears only through inference at the end of the poem. While Vinia is referred to by the common term for the Roman bride, nupta (the veiled one), the subject of Carmen 62 is virgo, the chaste pubescent maiden destined for marriage (unlike Vesta's lifelong virgines). The lack of specificity about the bride in Carmen 62 allows for speculation about her class and age at this defining event for ancient women. There is also room to speculate about the ceremony, given the scarce surviving textual and material evidence about Roman weddings, particularly the ritual reflected in the poem with its fusion of Greek and Roman attitudes and practices (see Marriage of Hebe and Herakles). No religious or civic ceremony was required for a Roman bride to be legally wed (see the confareatio form of marriage, little used by Catullus' time, in Matrimonium). The feast given by the bride's parents and her procession to the groom's home (deductio in domum mariti) was primarily a social event, used by upper-class families, eminent by virtue of ancestry, political office, or wealth, to advertise themselves through their daughter's contractual union (see dos). On the threshold of adulthood, which the Romans set for girls at menarche (as early as twelve years), this young bride is defended by a chorus of unwed companions (innuptae) who mourn her wedding night as rape. In opposition, the chorus of youths (iuventes) insist she must abide by the socially accepted decision of her parents and husband to separate from her mother and become a matrona. The opposing choral voices are structured in alternating choral stanzas that end with the chanted refrain Hymen o Hymenaee Hymen, ades o Hymenaee! The poem opens on a playful note, with the youths concerned that they will not win the singing competition against the better-prepared maidens; it quickly moves to distinctive expressions of normative female and male attitudes toward marriage (see also Plautus' parody of a Roman wedding in Casina IV.3). Carmina 62 and 64 (Epithalamium for Peleus and Thetis) are the only poems Catullus wrote in dactylic hexameter, commonly associated in Greek and Latin with epic adventure and heroes (for scansion see dactylic hexameter and video).
Consult the site Bibliography for analyses of Catullus' wedding poems: Feeney (2013), Panoussi (2007, 2019), Thomsen (1992); for Roman weddings and marriage: Hersch (2009, 2010, 2013-14) and Treggiari (1994); for Greek weddings: Oakley & Sinos (1993). See also Matrimonium for an overview of the nature, practice and history of Iustum Matrimonium.

  IUVENES

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    Vesper adest, iuvenes, consurgite: Vesper Olympo

    exspectata diu vix tandem lumina tollit.

    Surgere iam tempus, iam pinguis linquere mensas,

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    iam veniet virgo, iam dicetur hymenaeus.

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   5   Hymen o Hymenaee Hymen, ades o Hymenaee!

  INNUPTAE

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    Cernitis, innuptae, iuvenes? Consurgite contra;

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    nimirum Oetaeos ostendit Noctifer ignes.

    Sic certest; viden ut perniciter exsiluere?

    Non temere exsiluere, canent quod vincere par est.

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 10   Hymen o Hymenaee Hymen, ades o Hymenaee!

  IUVENES

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    Non facilis nobis, aequales, palma parata est;

    aspicite innuptae secum ut meditata requirunt.

    Non frustra meditantur: habent memorabile quod sit;

    nec mirum, penitus quae tota mente laborant.

  15  Nos alio mentes, alio divisimus aures;

    iure igitur vincemur: amat victoria curam.

    Quare nunc animos saltem convertite vestros;

    dicere iam incipient, iam respondere decebit.

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    Hymen o Hymenaee Hymen, ades o Hymenaee!

  INNUPTAE

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 20  Hespere, quis caelo fertur crudelior ignis?

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   Qui natam possis complexu avellere matris,

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    complexu matris retinentem avellere natam,

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    et iuveni ardenti castam donare puellam.

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    Quid faciunt hostes capta crudelius urbe?

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  25   Hymen o Hymenaee Hymen, ades o Hymenaee!

  IUVENES

    Hespere, quis caelo lucet iucundior ignis?

   Qui desponsa tua firmes conubia flamma,

    quae pepigere viri, pepigerunt ante parentes,

    nec iunxere prius quam se tuus extulit ardor.

  30  Quid datur a divis felici optatius hora?

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    Hymen o Hymenaee Hymen, ades o Hymenaee!

  INNUPTAE

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    Hesperus e nobis, aequales, abstulit unam.

[LACUNA]

  IUVENES

    namque tuo adventu vigilat custodia semper;

    nocte latent fures, quos idem saepe reuertens,

  35  Hespere, mutato comprendis nomine Eous.

    At lubet innuptis ficto te carpere questu.

    Quid tum, si carpunt, tacita quem mente requirunt?

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    Hymen o Hymenaee Hymen, ades o Hymenaee!

  INNUPTAE

    Ut flos in saeptis secretus nascitur hortis,

  40  ignotus pecori, nullo convolsus aratro,

    quem mulcent aurae, firmat sol, educat imber;

    multi illum pueri, multae optavere puellae:

    idem cum tenui carptus defloruit ungui,

    nulli illum pueri, nullae optavere puellae:

  45  sic virgo, dum intacta manet, dum cara suis est;

    cum castum amisit polluto corpore florem,

    nec pueris iucunda manet, nec cara puellis.

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    Hymen o Hymenaee Hymen, ades o Hymenaee!

  IUVENES

    Ut vidua in nudo vitis quae nascitur arvo,

  50  numquam se extollit, numquam mitem educat uvam,

    sed tenerum prono deflectens pondere corpus

    iam iam contingit summum radice flagellum;

    hanc nulli agricolae, nulli coluere iuvenci:

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    at si forte eadem est ulmo coniuncta marito,

  55  multi illam agricolae, multi coluere iuvenci:

    sic virgo dum intacta manet, dum inculta senescit;

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    cum par conubium maturo tempore adepta est,

    cara viro magis et minus est invisa parenti.

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    [Hymen o Hymenaee Hymen, ades o Hymenaee!]

    At tu ne pugna cum tali coniuge, virgo.

  60  non aequom est pugnare, pater cui tradidit ipse,

    ipse pater cum matre, quibus parere necesse est.

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   Virginitas non tota tua est, ex parte parentum est:

    tertia pars patrist, pars est data tertia matri,

    tertia sola tua est: noli pugnare duobus,

  65  qui genero sua iura simul cum dote dederunt.

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    Hymen o Hymenaee Hymen, ades o Hymenaee!

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