Epithalamium

On the approach to the bride's marital bedroom, a poet would compose an epithalamium for her. Through the course of classical history, this genre remained popular. Catullus, a famous Roman poet, wrote an epithalamium that was either a translation of or at least an inspiration from a now-lost Sappho poem. Origen suggested that the Song of Songs might be an epithalamium on Solomon's union with the daughter of the Pharaoh. Originally sung by a group of boys and girls outside the nuptial chamber, it was a song in praise of the bride and the bridegroom among the Greeks.

The bride and bridegroom were awakened in the morning using one form, according to the Scholast on Theocritus, and in the evening using an other one. In either case, the song's major focus was on blessing requests and happy prophecies, occasionally broken up by the antiquated chorus Hymen o Hymenaee, as was only fitting. A similar practice was popular among the Romans, but the song was only sung by girls after the wedding guests had left, and it contained much more of what contemporary attitudes would consider to be obscene.

The epithalamium underwent extensive cultivation and was transformed into a unique literary style by the poets. Another famous painting style in Italy during the Renaissance was epithalamia. These were nudists that were given as wedding presents with the intention of wishing the newlyweds fertility and happiness. A frequent topic was Venus and Cupid. In Lorenzo Lotto's epithalamic painting, Cupid is seen urinating on Venus as a puer mingens, a Renaissance symbol for fertility.