Art & MusicGreek → English
Epithalamium
/ˌɛpɪθəˈleɪmiəm/noun
A poem or song written to celebrate a marriage.
The Greek roots
ἐπί
epí
upon, at
θάλαμος
thálamos
bedchamber
Literally: “at the bridal chamber”
The story of the word
The original was sung outside the door on the wedding night, by a chorus of the couple's friends, partly to bless them and partly to drown out the noise. Sappho's fragments include some of the earliest. Spenser's Epithalamion of 1595 runs to 365 long lines, one for each day of the year, and was written for his own wedding.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
thalamusepidermisepilogueepitaph
In a sentence
The composer set an epithalamium for the duke's second marriage.
Anthologies of the period are thick with epithalamia and elegies.