Thursday 28 July 2011

Symposium

In ancient Greece, the symposium was a drinking party (from Greek συμπόσιον symposion from συμπίνειν sympinein, "to drink together"). Literary works that describe or take place at a symposium include two Socratic dialogues, Plato's Symposium and Xenophon's Symposium, as well as a number of Greek poems such as the elegies of Theognis of Megara. Symposia are also depicted in Greek, and Etruscan art, and show similar scenes. The Latin equivalent in Roman society is the convivium.