Similar to several other questions, I am trying to draw hypergraphs in tikz. I want to draw a directed hypergraph that looks something like those in this image from here:

As opposed to other questions, I do not want to draw an arc between the associated edges. Instead I want the edges to join for a segment and then split again.
I don't mind specifying the position of the join point, but I would rather not have to manually specify the angle of the incoming and outgoing edges. I would prefer that lines smoothly separate from the join point.
This is my poor attempt at recreating this figure:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\tikz{
\node [circle,draw] (v1) at (0,0) { $v_1$ };
\node [circle,draw] (v2) at (-1,-3) { $v_2$ };
\node [circle,draw] (v3) at (2,-2) { $v_3$ };
\node [circle,draw] (v4) at (1,-4) { $v_4$ };
\node [circle,draw] (v5) at (3,1) { $v_5$ };
\node [circle,draw] (v6) at (5,-1) { $v_6$ };
\node [circle,draw] (v7) at (4,-5) { $v_7$ };
\node [] (e1) at (1,-2) { $e_1$ };
\node [] (e2) at (2,0) { $e_2$ };
\node [] (e3) at (3,-3) { $e_3$ };
\node [] (e4) at (4,0) { $e_4$ };
%
\path
% edge 1
(v1) [-] edge node { } (e1)
(v2) [-] edge node { } (e1)
(e1) [->] edge node { } (v3)
(e1) [->] edge node { } (v4)
% edge 2
(v1) [-] edge node { } (e2)
(v3) [-] edge node { } (e2)
(e2) [->] edge node { } (v5)
% edge 3
(v7) [-] edge node { } (e3)
(e3) [->] edge node { } (v3)
(e3) [->] edge node { } (v4)
% edge 4
(v5) [-] edge node { } (e4)
(e4) [->] edge node { } (v6)
(e4) [->] edge node { } (v7)
;
}
\end{document}
This produces this figure:



\documentclassand the appropriate packages that sets up the problem. While solving problems can be fun, setting them up is not. Then, those trying to help can simply cut and paste your MWE and get started on solving the problem. – Peter Grill Apr 11 '13 at 05:25tkz-graphpackage: look at its documentation on page 43 (an example very similar to the first picture). – Claudio Fiandrino Apr 14 '13 at 09:52tkz-graphpackage documentation look nice, but I do not see any hypergraphs in the produced images. Perhaps there is some hypergraph support, but I cannot read the French documentation. – Arlen Cox Apr 14 '13 at 15:56