Symposium facts for kids

Guests wear wreaths, play kottabos, and recline on couches and pillows while a female slave plays the aulos

A symposium (plural: symposia) was a drinking party in Ancient Greece. Guests were males. Well bred women did not attend. Boys or slave girls served the food and drink, danced, juggled, played music, or otherwise entertained the assembly. The symposium was an aristocratic institution often held to celebrate a young man's entry into adult society, an athletic victory, or a poetic achievement. It was an occasion for male conversation and debate. Party-goers reclined on couches and pillows. Guests played a game called kottabos, wrestled, and held song contests. A symposium is described in Plato's The Symposium.

In modern usage, it has come to mean an academic conference or meeting, such as a scientific conference. The equivalent of a Greek symposium in Roman society is the Latin convivium.

Images for kids

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  Plato's Symposium, depiction by Anselm Feuerbach

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  Banquet scene from a Temple of Athena (6th century BC relief).

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  Kottabos player flinging wine-dregs (Attic red-figure kylix, c. 510 BC).

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  Banqueting scene from the Etruscan Tomb of the Leopards.

See also

In Spanish: Simposio (Antigua Grecia) para niños