Marek Węcowski
(University of Warsaw)
University of Utrecht, 7, 9, 14, 16 Febr., 2012
Symposion. The Rise of the Greek Aristocratic Banquet
I. Tuesday 7 Febr. 13.30 – 17.00 h. place TBA
PART ONE:
Symposion as a historical problem
1. An outline of the “sympotic studies”
2. Symposion in perspective. Some methodological considerations
3. Oswyn Murray and his critics, or defining the symposion and inquiring into its origins
4. Typologies of the feast. Some theoretical models
PRELIMINARY READING:
M. DIETLER, “Theorizing the Feast: Rituals of Consumption, Commensal Politics, and Power in
African Context”, [in:] M. Dietler & B. Hayden (eds), Feasts: archaeological and ethnographic
perspectives on food, politics, and power. (Washington, DC – London, 2001), p. 65–114;
O. MURRAY, “The Symposion as Social Organization”, [in:] R. Hägg (ed.), The Greek Renaissance of the
Eight Century B.C.: Tradition and Innovation. Proceedings of the Second International Symposium at
the Swedish Institute in Athens, 1–5 June, 1981. (Stockholm, 1983), p. 195–199.
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PART TWO:
Early Greek Aristocracy and the Symposion I
1. The nature of archaic Greek aristocracy
a) What is early Greek aristocracy?
b) The equal and the more equal in the archaic city
c) A precarious élite
2. Describing symposion: A working hypothesis
a) Terminology of the symposion
b) The organisation of the symposion: Its framework and participants
c) The organisation of the symposion: Ceremonial and entertainments
PRELIMINARY READING:
Texts:
THEOGNIS of Megara [entire collection] and XENOPHANES of Colophon [only fragment 1], in
translations [for Greek texts, see M. L. WEST, Iambi et elegi Graeci ante Alexandrum cantati (2nd ed.),
(Oxford, 1992)];
A selection of comic fragments to be found in: S. D. OLSON, Broken Laughter. Select Fragments of
Greek Comedy, Edited with Introduction, Commentary, and Translation by… (Oxford, 2007), Section
“H” [for texts and commentaries] and Appendix IV [for translations].
Secondary literature:
O. MURRAY, “The Culture of the Symposion”, [in:] K. A. Raaflaub & H. Van Wees (eds),
A Companion to Archaic Greece. (Malden, MA, 2009), p. 508–523.
II. Thursday 9 Febr. 13.30 – 17.30 Janskerkhof 13A room 0.06
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PART ONE:
Early Greek aristocracy and the symposion II
1. Symposion and aristocracy: Social realities and group-ideals
a) Sympotic inequalities in action
b) Sympotic dreams of equality
2. Conclusions: The nature and the social functions of the aristocratic banquet
a) Symposion and the natural selection of the archaic aristocracy
b) Symposion as a type of feast
Towards a definition of the symposion I
1. “Rejoice while the cup goes circling round!”
a) The circulating cup and the organization of the symposion
b) The ritual origins of the epidexia practice
PRELIMINARY READING:
Texts:
ARCHILOCHUS of Paros, THEOGNIS of Megara, and CRITIAS of Athens (elegies), in translations [for
Greek texts, see M. L. WEST, Iambi et elegi Graeci ante Alexandrum cantati (2nd ed.), (Oxford, 1992)].
Secondary literature:
M. WECOWSKI, “Towards a definition of the symposion”, [in:] T. Derda, J. Urbanik, M. Wecowski
(eds), Euergesias charin. Studies Presented to Benedetto Bravo and Ewa Wipszycka by Their Disciples.
(Warszawa, 2002), p. 337–361 [I attach the PDF file of the paper].
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PART TWO:
Towards a definition of the symposion II
1. “Anti-symposia” in the Greek thought
a) The circulating cup and the “anti-symposion”
b) The drinking contest of the festival of Anthesteria in Athens
c) The Cretan public messes, or andreia
d) The Spartan syssitia, Xenophanes’ symposion, and the banquets of Cleomenes III
2. Conclusions: Towards a new definition of the symposion
a) Symposion and the reclining party in Greek sympotic imagery
b) Defining the symposion: The circulating cup and the social dynamics of the aristocratic
banquet
PRELIMINARY READING:
Texts:
ATHENAEUS of Naucratis, The learned banqueters [The Deipnosophists], Book IV 151 A–153 E, in
translation [for Greek text and recent translation, see S. D. Olson’s edition for the Loeb Classical
Library].
Secondary literature:
A. RABINOWITZ, “Drinking from the same cup: Sparta and late archaic commensality”, [in:] S.
Hodkinson (ed.), Sparta. Comparative Approaches. (Swansea, 2000), p. 113–191.
III. Tuesday 14 Febr. 13.30 – 17.00 h. place TBA
PART ONE:
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The “Cup of Nestor”, the Near East, and the early archaic symposion
1. The Pithekoussan “Cup of Nestor” as the first convivial poem of the archaic Greece
a) The “Cup of Nestor”, sympotic poetry, and sympotic values
b) The epidexia principle and the “Cup of Nestor”
2. Symposion and the Near East
a) Symposion and the Levantine marzeah – parallels and contrasts
b) The Levant, Italy, and the Aegean – iconography of the reclining feast
c) The habit or reclining at a banquet and the early sympotic architecture
PRELIMINARY READING:
Texts:
ARCHILOCHUS of Paros (elegies) and CALLINUS of Ephesus, in translations [for Greek texts, see M. L.
WEST, Iambi et elegi Graeci ante Alexandrum cantati (2nd ed.), (Oxford, 1992)].
Secondary literature:
O. MURRAY, “Nestor’s Cup and the Origins of the Greek Symposion”, [in:] B. D’Agostino & D.
Ridgway (eds), APOIKIA. Scritti in onore di Giorgio Buchner. (Napoli, 1994) [= AION ArchStAnt n.s.
1, 1994], p. 47–54.
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PART TWO:
Homer – the “heroic feast” and the symposion
1. The Homeric dais
a) The organisation of the “heroic feast” in Homer
b) The social dynamics of the “heroic feast”
2. Symposion in Homer
a) Luxurious aristocratic lifestyle in the Iliad and in the Odyssey
b) The realities of the symposion in Homer
3. Conclusions: Homer and the symposion
a) Dais, geras, and the polis – on the (a-)historicity of the “heroic feast”
b) Dionysus and the Poet, of Homer reflecting on the symposion
PRELIMINARY READING:
Texts:
I would like to ask the participants to re-read the Iliad (esp. Books I and II) and the Odyssey (esp.
Books I, VII-IX, and XIV-XVIII).
Secondary literature:
H. VAN WEES, “Princes at Dinner. Social Event and Social Structure in Homer”, [in:] J. P. Crielaard
(ed.), Homeric Questions. Essays in Philology, Ancient History and Archaeology, including the Papers
of a Conference Organized by the Netherlands Institute at Athens (15 May 1993). (Amsterdam, 1995),
p. 147–182;
M. WECOWSKI, “On the Historicity of the ‘Homeric World’: Some Methodological Considerations”,
[in:] A. Mazarakis Ainian (ed.), The “Dark Ages” Revisited. Acts of an international symposium in
memory of William D. E. Coulson. University of Thessaly, Volos, 14-17 June 2007. (Volos, 2011), vol.
I, p. 73-81 [I attach the PDF file of the paper].
IV. Thursday 16 Febr. 13.30 – 17.30 h. Janskerkhof 13A room 0.06
PART ONE:
Symposion and archaeology till the end of the eighth century B.C.
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1. A historical signpost: The “Cup of Nestor” in its Euboean context
a) The “Cup of Nestor”, the symposion, and the Late Geometric Euboean funerary customs
b) Pithekoussai, Kyme, Eretria – the “princes” and the aristocrats of the Euboean world (8th
and 7th century B.C.)
c) Lefkandí and Protogeometric Euboean funerary rites pertaining to wine-drinking
2. Towards a wider historical context: Geometric Athens and beyond
a) Athenian grave-goods of the Geometric period and the emergence of the symposion
b) The archaeological record and the rise of the symposion: A broader Mediterranean context
c) An “anti-sympotic” reaction in Crete?
PRELIMINARY READING:
C. MORGAN, “The Early Iron Age”, [in:] K. A. Raaflaub & H. Van Wees (eds), A Companion to
Archaic Greece. (Malden, MA, 2009), p. 43-63.
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PART TWO:
Symposion, aristocracy, and the rise of the polis
1. The Greek city, aristocracy, and the circulating cup
2. Homer – symposion and the new élite
3. A general historical model: The Dark Ages, the rise of the polis, Dionysus, and the origins
of the Greek aristocracy
PRELIMINARY READING:
I. MORRIS, “The eighth-century Revolution”, [in:] K. A. Raaflaub & H. Van Wees (eds), A Companion to
Archaic Greece. (Malden, MA, 2009), p. 64-80.
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