H44

The day of the Wedding began with the Proteleia, a sacrifice to the gods to bless the impending marriage. I had arranged for twelve cockerels, twelve goats, and twelve fattened calves to be the sacrifices here with the help of Antiokos. Each god would get three animals sacrificed in their name in the hopes that such a bounty would induce them to bless the marriage with good fortune. The statues of each of the twelve Olympian Gods were bathed in blood and the altars of each temple were constantly in use through the morning. I imagined you could see the smoke for miles around as the animal corpses were ritually burned and the meat climbed the smoke to Olympus to be consumed by the gods.

Next up, were a number of rituals, starting with my daughter undergoing the Nuptial Bath to ritually purify her for her husband. I wasn't present for that, mind you, nor were any of the men. This was the last act that would be done as part of the Proalia, where Olympias would spend her last few hours as an unmarried woman in the company of her mother, sister, and other female kin.

As part of that, Lanassa had woken early and spent time with Olympias performing sacrifices to Hestia, Hera, and Demeter for a happy, productive, and fertile married life. My wife had grumbled at having to do so, but she was quite adorable when she was annoyed. Her face scrunched up in a cute way. Not that I told her that, mind you. That seemed like an excellent way to find myself in Hades' court before my time, after all.

At any rate, once the bath had been taken, the water would be carried to the temple of Hera in a loutrophoros, or a ritual container. Lanassa's was made of silver and engraved with images of frolicking Naiads and grape leaves. I'd spared no expense for my Little Olive's wedding, after all. Once that was done, Olympias and Achaeus would make sacrifices of their own to the Gods, though Olympias would remain veiled doing so. Then, I would walk Olympias to the Temple of Hera for the last series of rituals before the feast in a process not too dissimilar from how the Father of the Bride walks her down the aisle in a modern marriage.

"Are you happy, my Little Olive?" I questioned as I walked Olympias to the Temple of Hera.

"Extremely, Papa. Achaeus is perfect, he's so sweet, and I couldn't be happier with a husband if I tried. I know you chose him out of political concerns, but I think I do love him anyway." Nodded Olympias as we walked.

"Good. Politics was not my only consideration, though. I wanted you to be happy. After all, what father doesn't want their daughter to have a happy marriage?" I responded.

"I am happy, Papa. Very." Offered Olympias.

"Good. In that, you'll find you are unique among rulers. Your mother and I were the same, and I also feel that way with Lanassa. I am hoping to make it a tradition for our House. After all, one only needs to look at our cousins of Macedon to see what disregarding the potential for love in a marriage pact turns into." I nodded.

"You're talking about my namesake, aren't you?" Queried Olympias.

"Indeed. Philip the Second laid the groundwork for Alexandros Megas, but his marriage to your great-grand-aunt was not conducive to the stability of Macedon or a happy life." I answered.

"Well, Achaeus and I are very happy, Papa." Remarked Olympias.

"Good. Gods willing, you'll stay that way for the rest of your lives." I intoned as we reached the Temple of Hera.

The whole series of rituals, sacrifices, and preparations took almost all day, but it was worth it to see my daughter so happy. By the time everything was finished and the Priestess of Hera, Goddess of Marriage, had finally finished the ritual ceremony to bind the two, it was three in the afternoon, judging by the position of the sun. Now came the Anakalypteria, the ritualized unveiling of the bride. It was perhaps the most important ritual of the long series of rituals, symbolizing the final transfer of the bride from her father's family to her husband's. As Achaeus removed the sea silk veil from Olympias, my Little Olive had a smile on her face that was so large it threatened to split her face completely in half. To his credit, Achaeus' smile was no smaller than my Daughter's.

"With this, Great Hera, Goddess of Marriage and Queen of Olympus has decreed the Marriage of Olympias, Daughter of Pyrrhus, and Achaeus, son of Seleukos bonded and sanctified! What the Queen of Olympus has sanctified, no man may gainsay!" Intoned the Priestess of Hera.

And with that, Olympias and Achaeus moved in to give each other a giant kiss. There was much cheering and hollering from the assembled guests and dignitaries at that. From my place next to Lanassa, I put my arm around my wife. She leaned into my shoulder and let out a hum of contentment. We'd done well raising Olympias. It hadn't always been easy, as I had been on campaign multiple times over the years while Lanassa had been Olympias' stepmother, but somehow we'd managed it.

"Almost makes you think, doesn't it?" Murmured Lanassa.

"What about?" I asked.

"About our family and the future. I wouldn't mind giving Ptolemy and Eurydice a little brother or sister, you know." Mused Lanassa.

"Is that so?" I questioned.

"Indeed. Just, no cats for this one. Eurydice's is enough for two children." Grinned Lanassa.

"Well, who am I to deny a request from my Queen?" I smirked before leaning in to kiss my wife for a few moments we kissed like that, oblivious to the world, until I felt a tug on my tunic.

Looking down, I saw Eurydice had slipped the leash that Ptolemy had put on her as his little sisters' minder for the rituals. She had a frown on her face as I looked down at her.

"Daddy, stop kissing mommy, people are leaving!" Insisted Eurydice.

I looked around to see that, yes, people were starting to filter out of the temple to head to the Wedding feast. I even spied Ptolemy giving me a shrug from behind Eurydice as if to say that his menace of a little sister was right. Spotting the fact that Prince Antiokos, the Sixteen-Year-Old son of Antiokos I Asianos, and several other princes in Ptolemy's age cohort were already making their way to the feast and holding a conversation about the wines on offer, I had a sneaking suspicion that my son had allowed Eurydice to slip her leash on purpose.

"Right, we shouldn't keep anyone waiting. Come on." I grinned before scooping a giggling Eurydice up into my arms and heading for the feast. As I passed Ptolemy, my son gave me a pleading look and I immediately crumbled.

"Fine, go join your friends. Just don't let Kartam's boy talk you into anything foolish. I've heard mixed things about Colchis' Crown Prince. . ." I muttered.

"Thank you, father!" Grinned Ptolemy as he moved to join the group of Princes that were in his age cohort.

I knew precious little from my Old Life on Earth about Saulaces of Colchis. What little had been known about him came uncorroborated from Pliny's writing over a century and a half later than his life. Supposedly he had gone on some sort of campaign in Egypt against a Ptolemaic Vassal on a whim as one of his first acts as king. That hadn't been corroborated ever, though from what I'd heard since waking up in Pyrrhus' body, he definitely had the temperament to go sharing off on a military campaign because he thought it'd be a great adventure.

With that, my family headed to the feast. Here were all sorts of sumptuous dishes from across the breadth of the known world. Grapes from Anatolia, Sogdian Melons, Bactrian Soft Apples, Oranges from the Indus, and Dates from Syria were laid out alongside a variety of Cheeses from both sheep and cow on silver platters engraved with scenes of nymphs and satyrs frolicking about. Bread of all kinds was piled high on gilded trays that were inlaid with jade and lapis lazuli. Wine of all kinds flowed freely from jeweled decanters, poured into silver goblets by servants dressed in richly dyed tunics.

Singers and minstrels performed ballads and plucked lyres, as tumblers and acrobats from the states of Sinae far beyond the easternmost of the Seleucid Provinces performed death-defying flips and rolls for the amusement of the guests. Even as that went on, platters piled high with lentils in a sauce spiced with the spices of the Mauryan Empire were brought out, alongside fish that was cooked in Saffron traded to the Seleucids from my own plantations.

The feast was quite richly appointed and neither Antiokos nor I had spared any expense in making this the most memorable social event that would occur for at least the next decade. I grinned as I drank cider that had been produced by my very own ciderworks, using it to wash down a bite of curry lentil on flatbread. I could see that everyone was having a good time, and notably, my cider and grappa were proving to be hits among several parties of dignitaries. I was definitely going to be getting inquiries to trade my Cider with Colchis and Thrace and my Grappa was turning out to be a hit with the Armenians who would likely follow suit there.

By the end of the night, I had received multiple inquiries of that nature, along with a request for trade of Saffron, Grain, and Iron from Rhodes via the Satrap of Rhodes, a man named Zeno who was the second son of the former Archon of Rhodes, who had been slain during the Wars of the Diadochi in the Ptolemaic takeover of Rhodes. Zeno had served Antiokos and been rewarded with the Island as Satrap after the latest bout of fighting with the Ptolemies had allowed the Seleucids to retake the Island and its territories. I was more than happy to oblige, as Rhodian Silver would not go amiss in my coffers.

Likewise, my son Ptolemy had somehow impressed the nephew of Orontes of Armenia, a seventeen-year-old Armenian Prince named Sames whose father, the brother of King Orontes, was the Orontid governor of Sophene. Sames went to his uncle and I also found myself signing a trade agreement with Armenia who was now going to be buying not just Grappa, but also Sea Silk, Dyes, and High-Quality Iron from me, via Sames' father in Sophene.

As the night ended and I returned to my apartments, I found myself lying in bed having just had a fairly successful session of lovemaking with Lanassa. My wife basked in the afterglow as we cuddled in the apartments we'd been given. Ptolemy was still hobnobbing with a few other princes and making connections that would serve him well once he became king while Eurydice was sleeping soundly, the excitement of the day proving to be too much for her. Lanassa and I drifted off to sleep still cuddling like that. The next day, we would present Olympias' dowry as everyone else gave wedding gifts to Achaeus and Olympias.

It would turn out to be the last, large, lavish, affair in Pergamon before we headed home. . .

XXXX

AN: The next chapter is already up on the site-which-shall-not-be-named. If you feel like reading it, you can search my name on there to check it out. I can't link to the page thanks to site rules, though.

Only one more chapter left to go in Pergamon after this. Hopefully, you guys aren't getting too bored with the slice-of-life stuff. It can't be all war all the time, you know. Once we finish this up, we'll have a few chapters detailing various projects in Epirus before Pyrrhus goes to war with Athens to fulfill treaty obligations with Sparta.

A lot of the stuff that I had going on in this chapter took a while to research. I don't exactly have access to a lot of books involving ancient Greek Wedding Ceremonies, after all. I had to literally go to my local library to look stuff up. Fortunately, my local library is badass. Even if they only had stuff that had generalities, it was more than I was able to find without it.

At any rate, the next chapter will be the presenting of wedding gifts and the journey back home to Ambracia.

Stay tuned. . .