Editing Symposium (section)

{{Short description|Part of a banquet in Greek and Etruscan art}}
{{About|the social custom in ancient Greece}}
[[File:Paestum tombeau plongeur c1.jpg|thumb|300px|A symposium scene on a fresco in the [[Tomb of the Diver]] from the Greek colony of [[Paestum]], in Italy, 480–470 BC]]
[[File:Symposium scene Nicias Painter MAN.jpg|thumb|300px|A female [[aulos]]-player entertains men at a symposium on this [[Red-figure pottery|Attic red-figure]] [[krater|bell-krater]], {{circa|420}} BC.]]
In [[Ancient Greece]], the '''symposium''' ({{langx|grc|συμπόσιον}}, ''sympósion'', from συμπίνειν, ''sympínein'', 'to drink together') was the part of a banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was accompanied by music, dancing, recitals, or conversation.<ref name="garnsey">Peter Garnsey, ''Food and Society in Classical Antiquity'' (Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 136 [https://books.google.com/books?id=iFSPK9dWqQgC&dq=convivium+symposium&pg=PA136 online]; Sara Elise Phang, ''Roman Military Service: Ideologies of Discipline in the Late Republic and Early Principate'' (Cambridge University Press, 2008), pp. 263–264.</ref> Literary works that describe or take place at a symposium include two [[Socratic dialogue]]s, [[Plato]]'s ''[[Symposium (Plato)|Symposium]]'' and [[Xenophon]]'s ''[[Symposium (Xenophon)|Symposium]]'', as well as a number of [[ancient Greek literature|Greek poems]], such as the [[elegiac couplet|elegies]] of [[Theognis of Megara]]. Symposia are depicted in [[Ancient Greek art|Greek]] and [[Etruscan art]] that shows similar scenes.<ref name=garnsey/>

In modern usage, it has come to mean an [[academic conference]] or meeting, such as a scientific conference. The [[Latin]] equivalent of a Greek symposium in [[Ancient Rome|Roman society]] is ''convivium.''<ref name=garnsey/>