had induced him to marry
the haughty, luxurious, citified niece of aristocratic Megacles, son of
Megacles.

The Homeric custom of bringing valuable presents or of performing
valiant deeds to win a maiden's hand had long passed away, and, in the
great days of Athens, the father had to provide a dowry consisting
partly of cash, partly of clothes, jewelry, and slaves. Solon, who, as
Plutarch tells us, wished to have marriages contracted from motives of
pure love or kind affection, and to further the birth of children,
rather than for mercenary considerations, decreed that no dowries should
be given and that the bride should have only three changes of clothes;
but this good custom had passed away with the era of simple living. So
distinctly was the dowry the indispensable condition of marriage, that
poor girls were often endowed by generous relatives, or the State
itself would provide a wedding portion for the daughters of men
deserving well of their country. For example, when the Athenians heard
that the granddaughter of Aristogiton, the Tyrannicide, was in needy
circumstances in the isle of Lemnos, and was so poor that nobody would
marry her, they brought her back to Athens, married her to a man of good
birth, and gave her a farm at Potamos for a marriage portion. The dowry
was generally secured to the wife by rigid restrictions; in most cases
of separation, the dowry reverted to the wife's parents; and though the
husband's fortune might be confiscated, the marriage portion of the wife
was exempt.

Of the ceremonies and formalities of marriage, the solemn betrothal was
the first and most important, as it established the legality of the
union; and it was at this ceremony that the dowry was settled upon the
bride. In the presence of the two families, the father of the maiden
addressed the bridegroom in the following formula: "That legitimate
children may be born, I present you my daughter." The betrothed then
exchanged vows by clasping their right hands or by embracing each other,
and the maiden received a gift from her affianced as a token of love.
The marriage usually followed close upon the betrothal.

The favorite month for the ceremony was named Gamelion, or the "marriage
month"; this included part of our January and part of February. On the
eve of the wedding, the good will of the divinities protecting marriage,
especially Zeus Teleios, Hera Teleia, and Artemis Eukleia, was invoked
by prayer and sacrifices.

Str