The article investigates the relationship between tragedy and the hymenaios, the lyrical wedding-song. After the identifying the distinctive features of the lyric genre as it was understood in the archaic and classical period, the essay explores the reworking of this extra-dramatic choral form in Euripides’ tragedy. An analysis of Euripidean passages referring to hymenaios from a thematic, linguistic and performative point of view highlights the intentional alteration of the traditional features of the wedding-song in tragedy, according to the specific role allotted to its ritual performance in the context of the dramatic plot.