In this video, I put on a bed sheet, break out the box wine, and try to recreate some of the drinking games played by the Greeks and Romans.
Gallery
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- A symposium in action. From the Etruscan “Tomb of the Leopards.”
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- Another symposium. From the “Tomb of the Diver” in Paestum.
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- A flute girl serenades symposium guests on their couches.
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- A krater (mixing bowl)
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- A kylix (shallow cup with two handles). This type of cup was used for light drinking and for kottabos.
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- A skyphos (a deep cup for heavy drinking)
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- A woman emptying a large skyphos. At symposia, drinking contests would use such vessels.
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- The flute girls at symposia were often prostitutes, who would join the men on the couches for some private entertainment.
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- A servant holds the head of a symposium guest about to vomit into his skyphos.
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- A kottabos player
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- Another kottabos player, with another cup in his left hand to keep himself hydrated during the game.
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- Sometimes, the flute girls played kottabos too.
Further Reading
James Davidson, Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens (New York, 1997)
Stuart J. Fleming, Vinum: The Story of Roman Wine (Glen Mills, PA, 2001)
Jancis Robinson and Julia Harding (eds.), The Oxford Companion to Wine (4th) (New York, 2015)
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