The Symposium and Its Past in Athenian Vase Painting, Ca. 530--450 B.C

Download or read book The Symposium and Its Past in Athenian Vase Painting, Ca. 530--450 B.C written by Kathryn Rose Topper and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 806 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The images analyzed in this project suggest that the modern understanding of the reclining symposium as an Orientalizing import was not shared by the ancient Athenians, who instead endowed the institution with a proud Hellenic pedigree. This realization calls into question the modern conception of the late Archaic symposium as a countercultural institution practiced exclusively by aristocrats who distinguished themselves from common citizens by engaging in a practice that was understood to be more Asian than Hellenic. On the contrary, I argue, the images' emphasis on the symposium as an ancient institution practiced by a community of equals has parallels in the rhetoric surrounding Athenian democracy, which sought legitimacy in a myth of autochthony that defined all citizen men as each other's equals. Far from being hostile to the common Athenian citizen, the symposium is represented on the vases as his birthright.