Epithalamium
(
τὸ ἐπιθαλάμιον μέλος). A nuptial song. (See
Matrimonium.) In Greek, Sappho, Anacreon,
Stesichorus, and Pindar composed poems of this kind, of which, however, only fragments remain.
We have three epithalamia of Catullus, of which that on the marriage of Peleus and Thetis is
one of the most splendid in all literature. In the imperial age, Statius, Ausonius,
Claudianus, Paulinus of Nola, Sidonius Apollinaris, Dracontius, Ennodius, Luxorius, Venantius
Fortunatus wrote poems of the same class that have survived. Those of Ausonius and Luxorius
are Vergilian centos. (See
Cento.) A collection of
Latin epithalamia may be found in Wernsdorf's
Poetae Latini Minores, iv. pt.
ii. 462.