In deepening our understanding of the symposium in ancient
Greece, this book embodies the wit and play of the images it
explains: those decorating Athenian drinking vessels from the sixth
and fifth centuries B.C. The vases used at banquets often depict
the actual drinkers who commissioned their production and convey
the flowing together of wine, poetry, music, games, flirtation, and
other elements that formed the complex structure of the banquet
itself. A close reading of the objects handled by drinkers in the
images reveals various metaphors, particularly that of wine as sea,
all expressing a wide range of attitudes toward an ambiguous
substance that brings cheer but may also cause harm.
Not only does this work offer an anthropological view of ancient
Greece, but it explores a precise iconographic system. In so doing
it will encourage and enrich further reflection on the role of the
image in a given culture.
Originally published in 1990.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand
technology to again make available previously out-of-print books
from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press.
These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these
important books while presenting them in durable paperback
editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly
increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the
thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since
its founding in 1905.
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