Image source: Metropolitan Museum of Art
The symposium, a party held after a banquet, was a social institution in Ancient Greece. They were held in private homes in the andron, the men’s quarters of the house, where aristocratic men would recline on couches and eat, drink, dance and sing together. Symposiums were also a gathering place where these men could hold serious discussions on topics such as philosophy and politics, as well as to conduct business with one another. For entertainment, the host would hire professional musicians and hetairai - educated courtesans - who were the only women permitted to join the party.
Symposiums, held to celebrate all kinds of occasions, were the perfect event for drinking wine. However, the Ancient Greeks believed that wine was a precious gift from Dionysus, the god of wine, and that it should be treated with respect. To prevent drinking to excess, the Greeks would dilute the wine with water in large open-mouthed vases called kraters - they considered drinking undiluted wine to be extremely vulgar.