**Group 1: Symposium Setting and Social Occasion**
– The Greek symposium was a key Hellenic social institution.
– It was a forum for respected families to debate, plot, boast, or revel.
– Symposia celebrated the introduction of youth into aristocratic society.
– Aristocrats held symposia to mark victories in contests.
– Symposia often took place in the andrōn with participants reclining on couches.
**Group 2: Drinking Customs**
– A symposiarch oversaw the symposium and decided the wine strength.
– Greeks and Romans mixed wine with water.
– Wine was drawn from a krater and served from pitchers.
– Libations were poured in honor of deities or the dead.
– The symposiarch was responsible for preventing excessive drinking.
**Group 3: Pottery in Symposium**
– Attic pottery was often used in symposiums.
– An amphora held the wine, and a single cup was passed among guests.
– Cups used at symposiums were simpler than amphoras.
– Pottery depicted scenes of Dionysus, satyrs, and mythical themes.
– Pottery played a key role in the symposium setting.
**Group 4: Entertainment at Symposium**
– Poetry and music were central to symposium pleasures.
– Female prostitutes and entertainers were hired for performances.
– Instruments like the aulos and barbiton were played.
– Guests engaged in competitive entertainments like kottabos.
– Skolia, drinking songs, and rhetorical contests were common at symposia.
**Group 5: Etruscan and Roman Drinking Parties**
– Etruscan art depicted banqueting scenes similar to Greek symposia.
– Women participated more fully in Etruscan banquets.
– Roman symposia (convivium) differed from Greek symposia.
– Roman symposia allowed women to attend and served wine throughout the meal.
– Etruscan and Roman drinking parties had similarities to Greek symposia.
In Ancient Greece, the symposium (Greek: συμπόσιον, sympósion or symposio, from συμπίνειν, sympínein, "to drink together") was a part of a banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was accompanied by music, dancing, recitals, or conversation. 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 depicted in Greek and Etruscan art, that shows similar scenes.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Paestum_tombeau_plongeur_c1.jpg/300px-Paestum_tombeau_plongeur_c1.jpg)
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.