The
Symposium in Greek Art
by Darcie Hutchison
(Click here to read
an interview with Darcie in The Gazette)
The symposium was the major
function of Athenian aristocratic male social life. It was
in this setting that friendships were forged and alliances made. Although
in some ways the symposium was an informal setting, the rituals
of the symposium were highly conventionalized. The symposiarch,
usually the oldest member of the party, supervised the mixing
of the wine with water, insuring a mix that would be conducive
to conversation but (theoretically) not strong enough to lead
to debauchery. He would also decide how many kraters of
wine would be mixed, how big the cups would be and how frequently
new rounds would be poured, helping to determine intoxication
level and length of party. As they drank, guests would give
speeches, recite poetry, and sing about subjects proper to the
symposium - love, eros, drink, and the like. Hired entertainment
in the form of flute-girls (auletrides), musicians, acrobats
and prostitutes might also be present, at the discretion of the
host.
Representations of the symposium
on Attic Greek vases are numerous, as perhaps is natural. To
have glasses and kraters depicting a symposium at your symposium
would be considered witty and ironic, and it was also a highly
appropriate theme.
These vases do not depict specific
"historical" symposia, such as those written about
by Plato
and Xenophon
(which may or may not have actually happened). Nor can they
be considered objective, photograph-like evidence of what a symposium
"really" looked like. Like all art, the depictions
of symposia on Greek vases have been tailored to their audience,
to the medium, and have been calculated to entertain.
This vase (image)
is a fairly typical representation of a symposium. The basic
depiction of a symposium is of a man, usually bearded, reclining
gracefully on a couch, cup in hand. As in this
example (image), there may be many of these man on the vase,
and they may interact with each other or they may seem isolated
from each other within the scene. The men may be joined
by youths or women, who may stand before them or share the couch
with them. Sympotic activities may be represented - a youth
may hold a lyre or a flute, or the figures may be depicted playing kottabos, a charming game which involved flicking
a few drops of wine from the bottom of a kylix onto a specified
target. The first
image mentioned above was found on an Attic red-figured
kylix, the cup of the symposium. Kylikes
were decorated around the outside of the bowl, where the figures
could easily be seen while holding the cup and participating
in toasts, and on the interior, or tondo, where they could be
seen while drinking.
The symposium above
is all male, so far: no flute-girls or hetaira (courtesans)
in sight. Of course, in classical Athens women were not
the only erotic objects: pederasty, or boy-love, was also practiced
among the aristocratic classes who held most symposia. This
image depicts a young boy (note lack of beard) plays the
flute for an older man. They share the same couch. This
is an example of a decorated tondo. Eros played a
large part in the atmosphere of the symposium. Love was
considered an appropriate thing to talk about while drinking,
and love poetry and songs would have been recited.
We do, of course, also have
many examples of symposia with women in attendance. The
women, of course, did not organize the party, and were often
there only as paid entertainment. The symposium was a male
event, taking place in the andron,
or men's room. These representations of women
as prostitutes (image) and entertainers contrast sharply
with depictions
of women on other vases, which show upright citizens' wives
weaving or making sacrifices.
Perhaps even more at odds with
the idea of the woman as weaver, wife and mother are the images
on a vase in The
Hermitage. This
vase (image) depicts a symposium of women, or rather hetaira. To
the ancient Greek observer, these
figures (image) would have seem extremely unnatural. Symposiums
were something men had. They were so associated with the
male aristocratic citizen that to show courtesans holding a similar
party was quite ridiculous, although of course courtesans were
not expected to obey the same rules as wives, and were to be
seen at quite a few 'proper' symposia.
Of course, mortals were not
the only ones who had symposia. If the upstanding citizens
of Athens did it, the gods must have, too. Herakles and
Dionysius, unsurprising, were the two gods most often found imbibing
on vases. This
vase (image) is an excellent example of Herakles reclining
from a bilingual amphora. A bilingual amphora, interestingly,
is a vessel with a red-figured side and a black-figured side,
usually showing the same or similar scenes. Here, on the
black-figured side, Herakles is attended by Athena, his patroness.
Another symposium with Herakles
in attendance is seen in this
image. Here, Herakles is hosted by Eurytos, a king who
taught him to shoot the bow, then began to suspect Herakles of
stealing his cattle, and who was finally killed by Herakles. The
two are shown reclining with various of Eurytos' children in
attendance.
The imagery of the symposium
is rampant on Greek vases, and most especially Attic red-figured
vases. This is not just because of the one-trick pony novelty
of drinking out of a cup with someone drinking on it. The
symposium was a powerful image because it reflected the exclusive
realm of the Athenian (male) citizen. By the symposium he
was linked to heroes such as Herakles, and his status as a member
of the ruling classes was reinforced. A vase such as the
one from the Hermitage would only have served to reinforce that
security of privilege by showing the ridiculousness and frivolity
of imitation symposia undertaken by the less privileged. A
symposium conducted by hetaira is a mere drinking party,
not a social ritual where status and alliances could be
forged. Sympotic art was the ultimate in self-reflective
art. As art mirrored life, that way of life was glorified
and reinforced. The Greek aristocratic gazing at a kylix
showing others like him engaged in the same activities as he
was justifying himself in a self-perpetuating cycle of drinker
and depicted.
