Marriage

===Ancient world=== <!--linked-->

====Ancient Near East====
Many cultures have legends concerning the origins of marriage. The way in which a marriage is conducted and its rules and ramifications have changed over time, as has the institution itself, depending on the culture or demographic of the time.<ref>[[Hobhouse, Leonard Trelawny]] (1906) [https://archive.org/details/moralsinevolutio00hobh ''Morals in evolution: a study in comparative ethics''], New York: H. Holt and Co, p. 180.</ref>

The first recorded evidence of marriage ceremonies uniting a man and a woman dates back to approximately 2350 BC, in ancient [[Mesopotamia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://theweek.com/articles/528746/origins-marriage|title=The origins of marriage|date=January 1, 2007|work=[[The Week]]|access-date=December 8, 2019}}</ref> Wedding ceremonies, as well as dowry and divorce, can be traced back to Mesopotamia and [[Babylonia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ehistory.osu.edu/articles/marriage-ancient-mesopotamia-and-babylonia|title=Marriage in Ancient Mesopotamia and Babylonia|last=Naranjo|first=Robert|website=eHistory.osu.edu|publisher=[[Ohio State University]]|access-date=December 8, 2019}}</ref>

<!---taken from article, "Jewish views on marriage"--->
According to ancient Hebrew tradition, a wife was seen as being property of high value and was, therefore, usually, carefully looked after.<ref name="JewEncMar" /><ref name="CheyneAndBlackMar" /> Early nomadic communities in the Middle East practiced a form of marriage known as ''[[Beena marriage|beena]]'', in which a wife would own a tent of her own, within which she retains complete independence from her husband;<ref name="WRSKinship167">[[William Robertson Smith]], ''Kinship and Marriage in early Arabia'', (1885), 167</ref> this principle appears to survive in parts of early Israelite society, as some early passages of the Bible appear to portray certain wives as each owning a tent as a personal possession<ref name="WRSKinship167" /> (specifically, [[Jael]],<ref>{{bibleverse||Judges|4:7|HE}}</ref> [[Sarah]],<ref>{{bibleverse||Genesis|24:26|HE}}</ref> and Jacob's wives<ref>{{bibleverse||Genesis|31:33–34|HE}}</ref>).

The husband, too, is indirectly implied to have some responsibilities to his wife. The [[Covenant Code]] orders "If he take him another; her food, her clothing, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish (or lessen)".<ref>{{bibleverse||Exodus|21:10|HE}}</ref> If the husband does not provide the first wife with these things, she is to be divorced, without cost to her.<ref>{{bibleverse||Exodus|21:11|HE}}</ref> The [[Talmud]] interprets this as a requirement for a man to provide food and clothing to, and have sex with, each of his wives.<ref name="JewEncHusWif">{{Jewish Encyclopedia|inline=1|title=Husband and Wife|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?letter=H&artid=986}}</ref>{{clarify|date=April 2013}} However, "duty of marriage" is also interpreted as whatever one does as a married couple, which is more than just sexual activity. And the term diminish, which means to lessen, shows the man must treat her as if he was not married to another.

As a [[polygyny|polygynous]]<!--this is NOT a spelling mistake for 'polygamous'--> society, the Israelites did not have any laws that imposed marital fidelity on men.<ref name="CheyneAndBlackJeal">{{EncyclopaediaBiblica|article=Jealousy, Ordeal of|section=Jannaeus-Jerah}}</ref><ref name="JewEncAdu">{{Jewish Encyclopedia|inline=1|title=Adultery|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=865&letter=A}}</ref> However, the prophet [[Malachi]] states that none should be faithless to the wife of his youth and that God hates divorce.<ref>{{bibleverse||Malachi|2:15–16|HE}}</ref> [[Adultery|Adulterous]] married women, adulterous betrothed women, and the men who slept with them, however, were subject to the [[Capital punishment|death penalty]] by [[Adultery#In the Hebrew Bible|the biblical laws against adultery]]<ref>{{bibleverse||Ezekiel|16:40|}}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse||Leviticus|20:10|HE}}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse||Deuteronomy|22:22–25|}}</ref> According to the [[Priestly Code]] of the [[Book of Numbers]], if a pregnant<ref>''[[Peake's commentary on the Bible]]'' (1962 edition), ad loc</ref> woman was suspected of adultery, she was to be subjected to the [[Ordeal of the bitter water|Ordeal of Bitter Water]],<ref>{{bibleverse||Numbers|5:11–31|HE}}</ref> a form of [[trial by ordeal]], but one that took a miracle to convict. The [[literary prophets]] indicate that adultery was a frequent occurrence, despite their strong protests against it,<ref>{{bibleverse||Jeremiah|7:9|HE}}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse||Jeremiah|23:10|HE}}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse||Hosea|4:2|}}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse||Malachi|3:5|HE}}</ref> and these legal strictness's.<ref name="CheyneAndBlackJeal" />

====Classical Greece and Rome====
{{see also|Marriage in ancient Rome|Ancient Greek wedding customs}}

In [[ancient Greece]], no specific civil ceremony was required for the creation of a heterosexual marriage – only mutual agreement and the fact that the couple must regard each other as husband and wife accordingly.<ref name="WILLIAMSON 1998">{{Cite book |last=WILLIAMSON |first=MALCOLM |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YvvJtcFkRpcC |title=The Sacred and the Feminine in Ancient Greece |date=1998 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-12663-2 |language=en}}</ref> Men usually married when they were in their 20s and women in their teens.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Greek Women: Marriage and Divorce|url=https://www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/background/43.html|access-date=2021-06-28|website=www.pbs.org}}</ref> It has been suggested that these ages made sense for the Greeks because men were generally done with military service or financially established by their late 20s, and marrying a teenage girl ensured ample time for her to bear children, as life expectancies were significantly lower.{{Citation needed|date=October 2012}} Married Greek women had few rights in ancient Greek society and were expected to take care of the house and children.{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}} Time was an important factor in Greek marriage. For example, there were superstitions that being married during a [[full moon]] was good luck and Greeks married in the winter in honor of Hera.<ref name="WILLIAMSON 1998"/> Inheritance was more important than feelings: a woman whose father dies without male heirs could be forced to marry her nearest male relative – even if she had to divorce her husband first.<ref name="PT">[http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20170601170518/https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200505/marriage%2Dhistory "Marriage, a History."] ''Psychology Today'', 1 May 2005</ref>

There were several types of marriages in ancient Roman society. The traditional ("conventional") form called ''conventio in manum'' required a ceremony with witnesses and was also dissolved with a ceremony.<ref name="magnusHirschfeldSexology">{{cite web |url=http://sexarchive.info/ATLAS_EN/html/history_of_marriage_in_western.html |title=Magnus Hirschfeld Archive of Sexology |publisher=Erwin J. Haeberle }}</ref> In this type of marriage, a woman lost her family rights of inheritance of her old family and gained them with her new one. She now was subject to the authority of her husband.<ref>Frier and McGinn, ''Casebook'', p. 53.</ref> There was the free marriage known as ''sine manu''. In this arrangement, the wife remained a member of her original family; she stayed under the authority of her father, kept her family rights of inheritance with her old family and did not gain any with the new family.<ref name="RomanEmpireMarriage">{{cite web |url=http://www.roman-empire.net/society/soc-marriage.html |title=Roman empire.net marriage |publisher=Roman-empire.net  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212170628/http://www.roman-empire.net/society/soc-marriage.html |archive-date=12 February 2009 }}</ref> The minimum age of marriage for girls was 12.<ref>{{cite book|author=Treggiari, Susan |title=Roman Marriage: Isusti Coniuges from the Time of Cicero to the Time of Ulpian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I0J1A6o4GuQC&pg=PA39|year=1993|publisher=Clarendon Press|isbn=978-0-19-814939-2|page=39}}</ref>

====Germanic tribes====
[[File:Seuso and his wife at Lake Balaton.jpg|thumb|Seuso and his wife]]

Among ancient [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] tribes, the bride and groom were roughly the same age and generally older than their Roman counterparts, at least according to [[Tacitus]]:
<blockquote>The youths partake late of the pleasures of love, and hence pass the age of puberty unexhausted: nor are the virgins hurried into marriage; the same maturity, the same full growth is required: the sexes unite equally matched and robust, and the children inherit the vigor of their parents.<ref>Tacitus (by commentator Edward Brooks). 2013. [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/7524/7524-h/7524-h.htm#link2H_4_0002 The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus]. Project Gutenberg. Footnotes 121–122.</ref></blockquote>
Where [[Aristotle]] had set the prime of life at 37 years for men and 18 for women, the [[Visigothic Code|Visigothic Code of law]] in the 7th century placed the prime of life at 20 years for both men and women, after which both presumably married. Tacitus states that ancient Germanic brides were on average about 20 and were roughly the same age as their husbands.<ref>Herlihy, David. (1985). ''Medieval Households''. Harvard University Press, pp. 73–5, {{ISBN|0-674-56376-X}}.</ref> Tacitus, however, had never visited the German-speaking lands and most of his information on [[Germania]] comes from secondary sources. In addition, [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] women, like those of other Germanic tribes, are marked as women from the age of 12 and older, based on archaeological finds, implying that the age of marriage coincided with [[puberty]].<ref>Green, Dennis Howard and Siegmund, Frank. 2003. ''The Continental Saxons from the Migration Period to the Tenth Century''. Boydell Press. p. 107</ref>