The Symposium: How To Party Like An Ancient Greek
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 3 April 2022
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Ancient Greece, the symposium was no ordinary after-dinner drinking party, but one in which the Hellenic men of society got together to wine, recline and philosophise. They took various forms depending on the whim of the leader of the symposium - the symposiarch - but were exclusively male affairs (aside from the occasional courtesan or two).
In this episode Tristan is joined by Michael Scott, Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Warwick, to find out more about the soirée of booze, babes and slaves that was the Ancient Greek symposium.
We mention a few different vessel types. Here are some visuals of the different vessels we mention:
You might also like: How to Party Like a Roman
Warning: a couple of cases of mild language.
For more Ancients content, subscribe to our Ancients newsletter here.
If you'd like to learn even more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download, go to Android or Apple store.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It's the Ancient On History Hit. |
| 0:10.8 | I'm Tristan Hughes, your host and in today's podcast we're talking all about the ancient |
| 0:15.2 | Greek symposium. |
| 0:16.8 | Now what was a symposium I hear you ask? |
| 0:19.0 | Well it was basically the ancient Greek dinner party, drinking party, how to party like |
| 0:24.0 | an ancient Greek. |
| 0:25.8 | You could take various forms, there was normally lots of drinking involved, how much drinking |
| 0:30.8 | depended on what kind of night the leader of the symposium the symposium wanted was |
| 0:35.9 | going to be a heavy night like those weekdays in shortage that sometimes happen at history |
| 0:40.3 | hit. |
| 0:41.3 | Was it going to be a lighter night with less drinking and more talk around other things |
| 0:45.8 | such as philosophy? |
| 0:47.8 | To talk through all of this I was delighted a few weeks back to head up to the University |
| 0:51.7 | of Warwick to interview Professor Michael Scott, Michael he's a hero of mine. |
| 0:56.9 | You may well know the name he's appeared on several TV shows over the years and also |
| 1:01.3 | on many podcasts. |
| 1:03.1 | Never the Ancient's Podcasts, this is a debut from Michael on of course the best ancient |
| 1:07.1 | history podcast around. |
| 1:08.2 | It was great to finally get him on the show. |
| 1:10.8 | It was a really fun chat and I hope you enjoy. |
| 1:13.8 | So that further ado to talk all about the ancient Greek symposium, here's Michael. |
| 1:21.0 | It's great to have you on the podcast for the first time on the ancient's it's been too |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.