god
Hymen
also: Гименей
The Greek god of marriage ceremonies; "the yoke of Hymen" is a stock literary phrase for marriage, used ironically of Toporkov's purely mercenary search for a bride.
Reading notes
- Marriage for Convenience (a novel in two parts) §89 Hymen
The Greek god of marriage ceremonies; "Hymen still lingering" is a coy classical euphemism for the wedding night, part of the narrator's mock-solemn, self-consciously literary aside.
- Late-Blooming Flowers §210 the yoke of Hymen
Hymen, the Greek god of marriage ceremonies; 'the yoke of Hymen' is a stock literary periphrasis for marriage, used with irony given Toporkov's mercenary aims.
- From the Notes of a Hot-Tempered Man §87 escaped Hymen
Hymen, the Greek god of marriage ceremonies, gives his name to the stock literary phrase "the yoke of Hymen" for wedlock; the wounded officer's medical excuse to avoid marrying is described as evading Hymen himself, the same ironic idiom Chekhov uses elsewhere for enforced or mercenary courtship.
- To N. N. Obolonsky, December 1889. Moscow. §2 Happiest of Hymen's chosen
Hymen, the Greek god of marriage ceremonies; Chekhov's jesting salutation to Dr. Obolonsky ("Счастливейший избранник Гименея," "happiest one chosen by Hymen") treats his recent marriage as an induction into the god's favor, a classical stock phrase used here purely as comic congratulation.