Editing Symposium (section)

==Setting and social occasion==
{{anchor|Setting and social occasion}}
[[File:Plato's Symposium - Anselm Feuerbach - Google Cultural Institute.jpg|thumbnail| [[Symposium (Plato)|Plato's Symposium]], depiction by [[Anselm Feuerbach]]]]
[[File:Banquet Assos Louvre Ma2829.jpg|thumb|Banquet scene from a Temple of [[Athena]] (6th century BC [[relief]])]]

The Greek symposium was a key Hellenic social institution. It was a forum for the progeny of respected families to debate, plot, boast, or simply to revel with others. They were frequently held to celebrate the introduction of youth into aristocratic society. Symposia were also held by aristocrats to celebrate other special occasions, such as victories in athletic and poetic contests. Many archaic poetic sources were written by members of the social elite communities, and so may not be completely representative of the whole local society.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Papakonstantinou |first=Zinon |date=2012 |title="A DELIGHT AND A BURDEN" (HES., Sc. 400): WINE AND WINE-DRINKING IN ARCHAIC GREECE |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44079957 |journal=Ancient Society |volume=42 |pages=1–32 |jstor=44079957 |issn=0066-1619}}</ref>

Symposia were usually held in the ''[[Andron (architecture)|andrōn]]'' (ἀνδρών), the citizen quarters of the household. The participants, or "symposiasts", would recline on pillowed [[Triclinium|couches]] arrayed against the three walls of the room away from the door. Due to space limitations, the couches would number between seven and nine, limiting the total number of participants to somewhere between fourteen and twenty seven<ref>Literature in the Greek World By Oliver Taplin; p 47</ref> (Oswyn Murray gives a figure of between seven and fifteen couches and reckons fourteen to thirty participants a "standard size for a drinking group").<ref>The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization (ed. Hornblower & Spawforth), pp. 696–7</ref> If any young men took part, they did not recline but sat up.<ref>Xenophon, "Symposium" 1.8</ref> However, in Macedonian symposia, the focus was not only on drinking but hunting, and young men were allowed to recline only after they had killed their first wild boar.

[[File:TestaAlcibiades.jpg|thumb|[[Pietro Testa]] (1611–1650): the Drunken [[Alcibiades]] Interrupting the symposium (1648)]]
Food and wine were served. Entertainment was provided, and depending on the occasion could include games, songs, flute-girls or boys, slaves performing various acts, and hired entertainment.

Symposia often were held for specific occasions. The most famous symposium of all, described in [[Symposium (Plato)|Plato's dialogue]] of that name (and rather differently in [[Symposium (Xenophon)|Xenophon's]]) was hosted by the poet [[Agathon]] on the occasion of his first victory at the theater contest of the 416 BC [[Dionysia]]. According to Plato's account, the celebration was upstaged by the unexpected entrance of the toast of the town, the young [[Alcibiades]], dropping in drunken and nearly naked, having just left another symposium.

The men at the symposium would discuss a multitude of topics—often philosophical or political.