The Imagery of the Athenian Symposium

"This book offers a new interpretation of sympotic scenes in sixth- and fifth-century BC Athenian vase painting. Through these images, the book explores what it meant to be a Greek community and how Athenians thought about past and present"--

Autorentext

Kathryn Topper was educated at Bryn Mawr College and Harvard University. She is Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of Washington. She has held fellowships from the Center for Hellenic Studies, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Her articles have appeared in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, the American Journal of Archaeology and Hesperia.

Klappentext

This book explores what it meant to be a Greek community and how Athenians thought about past and present.

Zusammenfassung
This book offers a new interpretation of the sympotic scenes that are so common in sixth- and fifth-century BC Athenian vase painting. It departs from earlier studies by approaching the images not as illustrations of contemporary practice but instead as vehicles for exploring what it meant to be a Greek community.

Inhalt

Introduction: vase painting and the symposium in Athens; 1. Ancient visions of the sympotic past; 2. Symposia of the primitive; 3. Eros, service, and the oinochoos; 4. The symposium and its foreign pasts; 5. Female symposiasts and the limits of civilization; 6. Symposia of the present?; Conclusion: vase painting and the construction of the sympotic past.