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The Greek historian Xenophon recounts in
his Symposium that one day Socrates was out
walking with some friends when they were
approached by Callias, a wealthy Athenian.
« I am about to give a dinner party . . . and I
think my entertainment would shine much brighter if
my dining room were graced with the presence of men
like you, whose souls have been purified.” At first,
Socrates thought Callias was mocking his disheveled
appearance, but the great man insisted. They thanked
him for the invitation, without promising they would
go. But when they saw his disappointment, they agreed
to attend. They spent the evening at his home—eating,
drinking, and talking—in one of the most characteris—
tic social fixtures of the classical world: the symposium.
As Xenophon’s anecdote reveals, a svmposium
could be an informal affair, in which a host might
invite friends he happened to bump into in the
street or at the agora,the meeting place of Clas-
sical Gre ek cities. A guest might evenbring one
of his own friends along, too, without a formal
invitation, a role th at evenhad a special name in
Gre ek: The ale! e ros was made to fe el as welcome
as anvo ne else, provided he (in Classical Greece,
dinner guests were alwavs male and almost eX-
clusivelv drawn from the aristocracv) enlivened
the evening for the other guests with his enter-
taining conversation.
One of Plato’s great works, also called the
Symposium, examines the nature of love. Writ-
ten around 37 5 B.C., it reveals the central impor-
tance ofthe feast to classical Greek culture. Like
Xe no phon’s earlier wo rk, Platoj’s is also set at the
dinner pa rtv of a famous Ath enian poet.
One of the guests present, Aristo de
mus, is sometimes regarded as the
token akletos-but Aristodemus is
at pains to point out th at he has been invited bv
his fellow guest Socrates, which, one assumes,
was as good a recommendation as anv guest
could have.
Despite the relaxed nature of invitat io ns,
however, there we re certain ritu als that all aris
tocratic Athenians would unfailinglv observe.
Etiquette required guests to bathe and groom
themselves before attending a banquet. Aris-
totle said it was ”inappropriate to come to the
svmposium cover ed with sweat and dust.” Even
S ocrate s, famed for his simple cloth ing and pref-
erence for going unshod, smartened himself
up for these occasions and reportedlv wore
sandals when heading out to a banquet.