Orus Apollo Hieroglyph. viii. p. 6. b. Footnote 55: Meziriac sur les Epitres d’Ovide, p. 190, sqq. Ælian de Animal. Nat. iii. 9. Alex. ab Alexand. ii. 5, p. 57, b. ----- On reaching the temple, the bride and bridegroom were received at the door by a priest, who presented them with a small branch of ivy, as an emblem of the close ties by which they were about to be united for ever. They were then conducted to the altar,[56] where the ceremonies commenced with the sacrifice of a heifer,[57] after which Artemis, Athena, and other virgin goddesses, were solemnly invoked. Prayers were then addressed to Zeus and his consort, the supreme divinities of Olympos;[58] nor, on this occasion, would they overlook the ancient gods, Ouranos and Gaia, whose union produces fertility and abundance,[59]—the Graces, whose smile shed upon life its sweetest charm, and the Fates, who shorten or extend it at their pleasure, were next in order adored; and, lastly, Aphrodite, the mother of Love, and of all the host of Heaven, the most beautiful and beneficent to mortals.[60] The victim having been opened, the gall was taken out and significantly cast behind the altar.[61] Soothsayers skilled in divination then inspected the entrails, and if their appearance was alarming the nuptials were broken off, or deferred. When favourable, the rites proceeded as if hallowed by the smile of the gods. The bride now cut off one of her tresses, which, twisting round a spindle, she placed as an offering on the altar of Athena, while, in imitation of Theseus, the bridegroom made a similar oblation to Apollo, bound, as an emblem of his out-door life, round a handful of grass or herbs.[62] All the other gods, protectors of marriage, were then, by the parents or friends, invoked in succession, and the rites thus completed, the virgin’s father, placing the hand of the bridegroom in that of the bride, said, “I bestow on thee my daughter, that thine eyes may be gladdened by legitimate offspring.”[63] The oath of inviolable fidelity was now taken by both, and the ceremony concluded with fresh sacrifices. ----- Footnote 56: Theod. Prodrom. de Rhodanth. et Dosicl. Amor. ix. Footnote 57: Eurip. Iphig. in Aul. 1113. Footnote 58: Poll. iii. 38. Footnote 59: Procl. in Tim. t. v, Meziriac. p. 155. Footnote 60: Etym. Mag. 220, 53. sqq. Cf. Plut. Conj. Præcept. proœm. t. i. p. 321. Tauchnitz. Footnote 61: Plut. Conj. Precept. 27. Cœl. Rhodig. xxviii. 21. Footnote 62: Meurs. Lect. Att. iii. 6, 106, sqq. Herod. iv. 34. Footnote 63: Menand. ap. Clem. Alexand. Stromat. ii. p. 421, a. Heins. -----