Aeneas Marries Eva an Epithalamium for the Marriage of Pál Esterházy with Éva Thököly (1682)

Abstract

The wedding poem dedicated to Pál Esterházy and his second wife uses two characteristic references from the classical and the biblical culture. Namely, the husband is presented as Aeneas, while the wife is referred to as Eva, the first woman of history in the epithalamium. The key moment of the narrative is when Eva offers a pomegranate to her husband, as it is also depicted on the print containing the poem. Pomegranate is a powerful symbol of fertility. It seems that in case of the Esterházy-Thököly couple this fruit had a double meaning. It was not only an expression of well-whises for the couple’s future marriage, but also a subtle reference for their extra-martial relationship from which allegedly a son was born in the time when Esterházy’s first wife was still alive.