Wedding planner
Personajes:
Tema: Marriage ritual
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Competencia en Comunicación Lingüística
Competencia Personal, social y de aprender a aprender
Competencia Ciudadana
Competencia en conciencia y expresiones culturales
Materias y cursos por Sistema Educativo
España > Cultura Clásica > 2º ESO > Raíces clásicas del mundo actual. Vida cotidiana
Enunciado
Erina was a Greek poet of the 4th century BC, whose most famous work contains 26 legible verses, out of a total of 54, corresponding to different parts of the poem. Originally, this poem, called The Distaff, was 300 lines long. It is a lament for the death of her friend Baucis and an evocation of a childhood lost and spent with her. She was born on the island of Telos, now Tilos, in Greece, near Kos, where she seems to have studied. She was much admired in her time and praised by later poets for the maturity of her writing despite her young age, as it seems she wrote this poem at the age of 15.
The fragment of The Distaff by the poet Erinna tells us about the transition from childhood to adulthood, and will help us learn about the ritual of marriage in Greece. Imagine that you are a wedding planner and you carry out the organization of a wedding, taking into account the steps that you must follow and the services that you have to hire.
Fragment of The Distaff
…and those game, Baucis, remember?
Two white horses, four frenzied feet – and one Tortoise
to your hare: ‘Caught you,’ I cried, ‘You’re Mrs Tortoise now.’
But when your turn came at last to catch the catcher
you raced on far beyond us, out from the great shell
of our smoke-filled yard…
… Baucis, these tears are your embers
and my memorial, traces glowing in my heart,
now all that we once shared has turned to ash …
… as girls
we played weddings with our dolls, brides in our soft beds,
or sometimes I was ‘mother’ allotting dawn wool
to the women, calling for you to help spin out
the thread …
…and our terror (remember?) of Mormo
the monster – big ears, long tongue, forever flapping,
her frenzy on all fours, those changing shapes – a trap
for girls who had lost their way …
… But when you set sail
for a man’s bed, Baucis, you let it slip away,
forgot the lessons you had learnt from your ‘mother’
in those far-off days – no, never forgot; that thief
Desire stole all memory away…
… My lost friend,
here is my lament: I can’t bear that dark death-bed,
can’t bring myself to step outside my door, won’t look
on your stone face, won’t cry or cut my hair for shame …
But Baucis this crimson grief
is tearing me in two …
Balmer, J., Translating Fragments II: Erinna’s Distaff. The Paths of Survival <https://thepathsofsurvival.co.uk/2012/10/05/translating-fragments-ii-erinnas-distaff/ >
1- Individually or in groups of up to 3 people, create your company logo as a wedding planner (with Greek motifs and related to marriage in Greece).
2- Write the order that you must follow in the organization of the wedding and the services that you need to hire at each moment (you must include, at least, the choice of the date within the month of Gamelion, the proaulia, the bath in the Calirroe fountain, the Hymenaeus, the gamos, the anakalupteria, the epithalamium and the epaulia).
Observaciones y contexto
Erinna's work is an elegy, a poetic composition that is not subject to a specific type of verse, but Erinna uses the dactylic hexameter, which is typical of homeric poetry.
She writes in the Dorian dialect, loaded with Aeolicisms, a nod to her predecessor Sappho and to lyric poetry in general, given that Aeolian is the language in which this genre was born. From later times, ranging from the 4th century AD until Hellenistic and Roman times, other poets can be found, such as Anyte of Tegea, Moero of Byzantium, Nossis, Aristodama of Smyrna or Melinno.
The elegy is a type of composition that has continued to be cultivated throughout history, and of which Erinna is, undoubtedly, a referent.
We will offer some keys that should be included in the activity, such as:
- Gamelion: name of the month of the Greek calendar destined for marriages (end of January, beginning of February).
- Proaulia: it was the time when the wife spent her last days with her mother, female relatives and friends, preparing for marriage. Usually, it was a party held at the house of the bride's father. During this ceremony, the bride would have made different offerings, invoking the proteleia, from goddesses such as Artemis and Aphrodite. Some toys were dedicated to Artemis by teenage girls before marriage, as a prelude to finding a husband and having children. More significantly, as a rite of passage before the wedding, the ritual of cutting and donating a lock of hair took place. This offering represented the separation of the wife from her childhood and an initiation into adulthood. Likewise, a link was established between the bride and the gods, who provided her with protection during this transition.
- Hymenaeus: lyrical composition sung during the procession of the bride to the groom's house.
- Gamos: it was the day of marriage, and it consisted of a series of ceremonies that involved the transfer of the bride from her father's house to that of her new husband. The day's ritual had begun with a wedding bath by the bride in the Calirroe fountain, symbolizing purification and fertility. The bride and groom then made offerings at the temple in order to ensure a fruitful future life. Both families attended the wedding party. However, men and women sat at different tables.
- Anakalupteria: the removal of the bride's veil. This meant the completion of the transfer to the husband's family.
- Epaulia: a shower for the wife and husband. The married couple received most of the gifts and preparation for their journey as husband and wife.
Once the rite of marriage in Greece is learned, the students, individually or in groups of 3, will act as wedding planners, describing how they are going to organize a wedding. You will choose whether you have been hired by the groom's or the bride's family, you will describe each of the steps that you have to take at any given time and the people available to carry it out, what services you are going to hire (music, banquet, dressmaker, etc.), and create your own company logo.
Descripción
Through Erinna's work, The Distaff, we will delve into the ritual of marriage in Greece.