Red-figure krater

On the main side of this exceptional, red-figure krater, dating to 470 – 460 BC, a “komos” scene (people returning home from a symposium) is depicted.

A group of komasts – merry (= noisily drunken) revellers – accompanied by a beautiful female flute player, dance and sing while wandering the streets. Often, these inebriated fellows would end up serenading outside beautiful women’s windows.

The symposium is considered to be one of the most common forms of private entertainment in antiquity. Aristocrats used to hold them – as informal gatherings at home – to have fun, discuss political and philosophical issues, recite poetry and of course drink their wine (diluted with water, as was the custom in Ancient Greece).