Love, sex, and marriage in ancient Greece are portrayed in Greek literature as distinct, yet closely intertwined, elements of life. For many upper-class men, marriages did not take place for love, and other relationships, be it with men or other women, took on this role.
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Due to this, a lot of the literature discussing love is about the relationships men had outside marriages, often pederastic relationships. For women, marriage was a social and financial decision made by their father and, particularly in classical Athens, women were expected to stay indoors so as to avoid any accusations of infidelity.
Marriage traditions in ancient Greece differed depending on the city-state, and majority of the sources, both literary and material, are about the upper classes. In upper-class families, marriage was seen as a way for the bride's father to increase the wealth and social standing of the family, and love was rarely a factor. Women would usually get married in their early teens - although this was not the case in Sparta - and men would get married around their mid to late twenties. In Athens, where the majority of the written sources comes from, this was partly because they were expected to complete compulsory military service beforehand. Throughout the ancient Greek world, a fundamental element of the pre-marital arrangements was the dowry, in the form of money, land or anything else of value, arranged by the father of the bride to be given to the groom as part of the marriage agreement.
The most commonly documented form of marriage ceremony in ancient Greek literature is the Athenian tradition. In the Greek tragedy Iphigenia in Aulis, the 5th-century BCE Athenian playwright Euripides describes the wedding preparations (or proaulia) for Iphigenia’s doomed marriage to Achilles:
Sacrifices were an important part of the proaulia and so was music that accompanied the procession to the groom's house on the day of the wedding. The sacrifices were made most commonly to Hera, as she was the divine example of a bride, and to Artemis, the goddess of virginity. The bride would have made sacrifices of animals and food, but, most notably, she would sacrifice her childhood clothes and toys as marriage marked the transition from childhood to adulthood. A 4th-century BCE inscription from Cyrene about purity regulations talks about the premarital sacrifices a woman must make to Artemis as though they are a penalty she must pay for the loss of her virginity.
The wedding day itself (gamos) was primarily focused on the transference of the bride from her father's house to her husband's house. The day began with more sacrifices to the gods to ensure the marriage was blessed and with the bride bathing, a symbol of purity. The bride and groom then made sacrifices together at a temple before going to the bride's father's home for a wedding feast. However, the most important parts of the gamos took place in the evening when the groom would drive the bride in a chariot down a torch-lit path to her house, followed by their family and friends of ella who bore gifts and played Greek music. When they arrived at the groom's home the couple would be showered with dried fruits, a symbol of fertility, before the husband would lead his new wife to the bed chamber where her veil would be ritually removed.