KRATER AND KRATOS: THE POLITICS OF GREEK DINING
KRATER AND KRATOS: THE POLITICS OF GREEK DINING

Summary/Abstract: This article considers the role of the symposium, often symbolised by the krater or mixing bowl that was at its heart, in Greek society in the very different worlds of the archaic period and democratic Athens. In the archaic period it is the locus of aristocratic life. At that time the symposium stressed, by the rituals performed and the arrangement of the social space, the equality of the aristocratic drinkers, and also provided a place where the identity and character of the drinkers could be tested against the ideals of the institution: wine gave an insight into true character and poetry laid down a moral code to be followed. Democratic Athens displayed a number of responses to the essentially aristocratic symposium. It became socially less central, and rich festivals provided by aristocrats were taken over by the polis; a new form of civic entertainment was introduced that reversed many of the features of the symposium. In comedy however the symposium remained a frequent source of imagery, only seldom being represented as problematic: for the most part it again symbolises the togetherness of the new comic worlds created in the plays.

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