The Bizarre Parties in Ancient Greece)

Imagine stepping into an ancient Greek party 2,500 years ago. The air is filled with the smell of wine and perfume. Men recline on couches, drinking slowly, reciting poetry and debating philosophy late into the night. Their wives and daughters are not allowed behind these closed doors, only alluring ladies invited to entertain them. This isn't just a party, it's a symposium, the most exclusive and elite gathering of the ancient Greeks. The symposium has very early origins. In fact, one of the oldest fragments of the ancient Greek alphabet that was ever found is from a cup believed to have been used in a symposium. It's called Nestor's cup and is dated to around 740 BC, not long after the Greeks borrowed the alphabet from the Phoenicians, which is why the Greek here is still written from right to left. It was found on Pythikose, today the island of Ischia, where the Greeks founded their very first colony in Italy. On it is written a little poem, which is the oldest reference to Homeric poetry ever found. They believe this very ancient cup was used in a symposium because of this poem that's carved on it. Translated from Greek, it reads, So it's basically a playful joke, claiming to be the cup of a character from the Iliad, Nestor, and promising that whoever drinks from it will suddenly become irresistible to women. This kind of playful poetry, humor, sexual innuendo and reference to literary culture and mythology was typical of Greek symposiums, or symposia for plural. This is why scholars believe this cup was used in one, or in some early form of it, like an elite drinking party. Of course, drinking parties were nothing new, they were as old as civilization itself, and earlier banqueting practices from the Near East likely influenced the Greeks in this way. But the symposium, as it later developed, was a uniquely Greek concept. In ancient Greek it was called Symbosium, which literally means to drink together. We have ancient literature that describes what took place at these events, and lots of ancient art that shows what they look like, mostly on red-figure pottery from the classical period, but also some earlier examples of black-figure pottery, as well as tomb paintings in Italy. What characterizes it the most is the way the participants reclined on elevated couches, with the left arm leaning on a pillow, and the right arm holding their drinking cup, the kylix. This was an intimate, invite-only get-together, with maybe 10-20 people. It was only the upper class who would enjoy it, and for men only. Respectable women like their wives, daughters, and sisters were not allowed in. However, there was one type of lady that was invited, which I will tell you about in the next chapter. This message is sponsored by Raycon. 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But I still get really good quality audio, as good as the big brands, but at half the price. The flexible multi-angular hook wraps around your ear so that they stay secure, and I can be active and know that they won't fall off. And with an 8-hour battery life, they keep me going for a full day. Plus the charging case has a 36-hour battery life. I use them for my daily grind. Whatever your daily grind is, you should use them too. It's Raycon's anniversary, and they're offering my viewers 30% off the Essential Open Earbuds. To order, click the link in the description box, or go to buyraycon.com slash streetgemsopen to get 30% off the Essential Open Earbuds. And now let's get back to the video. The focus of the symposium was of course the drinking, but before that, a light meal was served, with simple dishes like salted fish, roasted meat, cheese, bread, barley cakes, olive oil, dates, figs, and honey cakes. Then with a full belly, the drinking could begin. The participants would appoint a toastmaster called a symposiarch. His job was to lead the party by deciding on the pace of the drinking, how the evening would proceed, and most importantly, how strong to mix the wine. The Greeks never drank their wine straight. Only barbarians like us moderns would do such a thing, and Scythians too. They always diluted their wine with water, which they considered the civilized way to drink it. It was generally one part wine to three parts water, but could be mixed stronger or more diluted. The wine and water were mixed in a large pottery vessel called a crater. Slaves would then take the diluted wine from the crater with pitchers and pour them into the chalices of the participants. Depending on the reason for the celebration and the mood of the night, the symposiarch would decide on how strong to mix it, and how much wine would be drunk in total. Although these often did end up in drunken revelry at the end of the night, the purpose of a proper symposium was not about getting wasted. It was about composure, self-control, and intellectual stimulation, traits highly valued by the Greeks. Diluted wine gave them that pleasant stimulating buzz, but without losing their self-control. Although we do have visual evidence that shows it sometimes did get out of hand, with imagery of participants puking their guts out, and their slaves helping them through it. The night would unfold with a series of games and entertainment acts performed by special ladies called hetairai. These were high class courtesans, and were the only women allowed in. You might think of them as a kind of elite escort. Their job was to keep them in company, play music, dance, make conversation, and sometimes even sexual intimacy. They were highly admired for their beauty, intellect, and social skills, and they had access to these elite men's circles that regular women did not, which made them influential. They would famously play the aulos for the men, a double pipe that was used widely in the ancient Greek world. It's a kind of flute, but with a reed mouthpiece like a bassoon or an oboe, and is the sound you're hearing right now. It's a fascinating instrument that's still being played by only a handful of people in the world. One of these groups is called the Aulos Collective, who are the ones playing. I highly recommend you check out their channel after you finish this video. They show you how they make this instrument, and how they play it. The link is in the description. Apart from sexuality, games, and sometimes drinking too much, the core component of the Symposium was philosophical discussion, poetry reading, and political debate. The toastmaster would decide on what topics should be discussed. This was the serious side of the Symposium, an intentional setting where the participants were given the chance to show off their knowledge and sophistication. This might also be where the modern meaning of the word Symposium comes from, a gathering of intellectuals where talks are given about a high-level subject, but the ancient Symposium also had religious undertones to it. Before the drinking, they would pour a little bit of wine on the ground, a libation, as an offering to Dionysus, the god of wine. As the night unfolded, and they went deeper into this experience, it was like they were entering the divine realm of Dionysus, who was also the god of ecstasy and revelry. By drinking wine, it was as if they were taking in the essence of the god, bringing him into their body, and becoming possessed by him. It was as if he was joining them in the Symposium, sharing this divine experience together. In fact, their drinking cups were often painted with the eyes of Dionysus on the bottom, so that when they tipped the cup to take the last sip, it was as if they wore the mask of Dionysus, symbolically becoming the god himself. Mythological scenes were a common motif on this pottery, but a lot of these vessels that were actually used in Symposia were decorated with scenes of Symposia, which is most of the art you're seeing in this video. The black background comes from a special clay slip that turns black when fired in the kiln, while the red figures are simply the natural terracotta left exposed. The Kylix itself was an interesting choice of drinking cup. It was very wide and shallow, which means that if you tipped it too quickly, the volume of wine would come rushing towards your face and could easily spill all over you. I'm sure that happened many times to inexperienced drinkers. That seems less than ideal for a sophisticated drinking party, but actually, it's believed that such a cup was especially designed for keeping the events sophisticated and composed. In order to prevent spilling wine on yourself, you would have to hold it steadily with one hand for a long time, which required a lot of self-control. A virtue, as we said. And you would have to drink out of it carefully, which would maintain your air of This type of cup would force everyone to drink slowly and make the night last longer, which was the whole point. The Kylix also worked as a good catapult. Their unfiltered ancient wine would have solid bits that settled at the bottom of the cup, called the dregs. They would swirl those dregs around in the cup, then fling them onto a target in the middle of the room, in a game called kotavos. It was often a disc balanced on top of a pole, which they would try to knock off with their wine splashes. So as you can tell, the symposium had many sides to it. It could be serious debate, or drunken revelry, composure or puking, philosophy or silly games, self-control or sexuality, and the format of the night could have structure or spontaneity. The symposium became a prolific institution in the Greek world, and was practiced far and wide throughout the cities of the Mediterranean. But it also influenced other cultures. The Etruscans, for example, had close cultural and trade connections with the Greeks of southern Italy, particularly in Campania. Pithecuse, the very first Greek colony in Italy where Nestor's cup was found, was a meeting point between Greeks, Etruscans and Phoenician traders. And the Etruscans would have close cultural exchanges with the Greeks for centuries. They adopted the practice, but fit it to their own societal norms. Surviving Etruscan art is not as abundant as Greek art, but what we do see in this rare tomb painting is a very vivid scene of luxury. The participants are dressed in colorful clothes, and slaves are attending their every need. Greek and Roman writers described these banquets with tables overflowing with food and wine, sourced from the fertile Etruscan lands, and the Etruscan elite spending most of their leisure time in lavish banquets. Their love of feasting was legendary. Compared with the Greek symposium, the Etruscan banquet appears more indulgent and animated. I especially like this tomb painting depicting cooks preparing the food in the kitchen, to the tune of the aulos, giving us a behind the scenes look into the preparation of the feast. But an even starker difference in the Etruscan banquets is that they allowed their women to participate. Etruscan women were generally freer than Greek women, and they were allowed to recline with their husbands in their banquets, something the Greeks criticized as scandalous. This is depicted in Etruscan funerary art. These burial sarcophagi would have contained the ashes of married couples, and they show husband and wife reclining side by side, possibly banqueting together into the afterlife. The woman is not some kind of high-class escort like the Greek Hetairai that I mentioned earlier. We know them to be the wives because these are funerary monuments found in family tombs, the husband and wife buried in the same tomb. The Romans would take this indulgence a step further, with their own banqueting practice, the convivium. Adopted from the Etruscans or from the Greeks of southern Italy, the convivium retained the wine and conversation element, but put more emphasis on luxury and copious amounts of food. They also reclined during their banquets, and this is very much indebted to the Greek tradition. But unlike the Greeks who served simple dishes before the drinking, the Roman banquets celebrated excess and hedonism, with rich dishes, a bun and wine, and a lavish atmosphere designed to impress and entertain, with none of that self-control that the Greeks had. But even during the Roman Empire, the traditional Greek symposium continued in the eastern provinces, which were culturally Greek. The symposium as an institution lasted for a very long time, surviving into late antiquity. But just like most Greco-Roman traditions, it eventually faded out with the rise of Christianity. But its remnants lived on in the Byzantine period, with banquets still being enjoyed in the reclining position, even though by then, those Dionysian undertones were long gone.