Talk:Symposium

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 28 August 2017 and 3 January 2018. Further details are available on the course page. Peer reviewers: ElizabethOliphint, Garcia091995.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 10:35, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

The composition of the sections do not seem to have a centered focus. They introduce a topic and lightly describe the specifics of that event, rather that extensively describing the topic and then providing examples in pottery or literature to confirm the example. The article compares and contrasts ancient Roman and Greek symposium, when it should centralize around Greek symposium, and lightly touch on the Roman equivalent, if at all.

I think another topic that could be contributed is the sexual part of symposium. While the article does address hetairai, if fails to address that symposium was also very sexual. There are many examples of pottery that suggest sexual act with both the hetairai and other men.

The 'Pottery' section has so much potential for expansion. There are so many plates, cups and drinking vases that depict images of symposium. A good outline for the pottery section should start with an intro of common iconography of symposium depictions, like images of gorgons for example, and delve into why artists would put certain images on certain works, and a good way to wrap it up would be to pick an artwork and do a formal analysis of the symposium scene.

Doesn't symposium mean "drink together" not "drink a lot"? Zajonc 17:56, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes, you're right. I got in just slightly ahead of you. The article did say "drink a lot", but I changed it yesterday. Andrew Dalby 20:24, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

It's a cheap laugh, but do we want to contrast this with "Seminar" which comes frmo the combinatin of the words "Semi-" and "Arse" and has come to mean a forum for half-assed discussion? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 168.251.194.25 (talk) 14:07, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

• 1. If we're using the latin translation of συμπόσιον why is it presented as an exclusively Greek affair? Plutarch and Macrobius discuss them, Horace and Petronius satirize them.
• 2. Why conflate the flute-girls who by the late 5th C. were more likely to be professional musicians with the hetaeria? Could it be because this article falsely presents the hetaeria as background props rather than participating symposasts in order to depict the symposium as an almost entirely homosexual gathering?
• 3. The remark about naked servers is, I assume, garnered from the evidence of vase painting. These are not documentary photographs. Twospoonfuls 10:22, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

• I got rid of the LGBT banner till someone can legitimately prove that Greek pederasty is directly related to modern LGBT culture. Matthew Cadrin 03:37, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

It isn't, but that is not the point. It does relate to LBGT studies from the point of view of the Symposium as a written story....but I think this article need to be edited down untill references can be proveded.--Amadscientist (talk) 15:48, 13 February 2010 (UTC)

Is it certain that the slaves were actually nude? I understood that on Athenian vase paintings slaves were frequently portrayed as nude to make it clear that they were slaves. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.6.7.39 (talk) 21:29, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

There seems to be a question of whether the wine servers at symposia were men or boys. The Oxford illustrated history of Greece and the Hellenistic world By John Boardman, Jasper Griffin, Oswyn Murray, on page 219, clearly delineates two complementary groups of participants (not exclusively, of course, as we all know that at times hetairae were employed). These groups are 1. the fellow drinkers, and 2. the slave boys. On that same page, the caption to the illustration tells us that "women attended only to entertain, boys to provide music or serve wine." This is in keeping with Greek aesthetics, where men would have derived pleasure from the sight of a naked boy, rather than a naked adult.

While some sources may use the term "young man" others do not, and we would do well to be consistent with ancient use as well as with the more authoritative sources. It would be hard to find a more authoritative source than Boardman and Murray, published by Oxford. I might add that one of the links that Ghreqphpur has contributed also uses the term "serving boy," and the Metropolitan Museum link specifies that "The mixture, usually three or four parts water to one part wine, was served by slave boys." So I do not see what the fuss is about, using the term "slave boys" in the article.

As for the insistent deletion of a valuable and comprehensive link in favor of links that only discuss one object, or none, I have nothing to say other than it shortchanges the reader. Haiduc (talk) 11:34, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

Two editors appear to be edit warring over the external links, as well as some wording of a paragraph in the body of the article.

While I won't comment on the edits to the paragraph ... I have looked at the external links. From what I can see, none of them provide images that are not already either in the article itself or already available via the existing link to Wikimedia Commons. As a result, I believe all of the links could be removed. Some of them may be useful as refs for text - but even that appears questionable as the links appear to be more about the artwork rather than about the actual Symposium illustrated by the art. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 19:29, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

It may be that all the material in the present link can be found on Wiki and could be put in a gallery in the article. If and when that takes place I would be happy to agree to the removal of any redundant material presently linked. As for the edit war, there is none. I simply have had to deal with a persistent vandal who did not respond to the talk page discussion. We all have to waste time with people mutilating articles, let's not add insult to injury. Haiduc (talk) 20:49, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

I came on this article while linking from another and I immediately recognized the fingerprints of the now banned editor Haiduc. The current pictures were chosen specifically by him to highlight pederasty, which has only an incidental association with this subject but which he constantly promoted within WP. The lead picture, showing the tomb of the diver, was pasted by him here. The picture showing the 'flutist' was pasted by him here but the 'flutist' was mis-labelled by him as a 'woman' and subsequently corrected to 'beautiful boy' by an anonymous contributor here. It fills me with a mixture of rage and despair that he was able to get away with these antics for so long. I intend replacing the pictures. McZeus (talk) 07:20, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

What kind of images are you looking for? I agree that pederastic scenes are not the way to illustrate "symposium," but (and you know where I'm coming from on this, as we worked on the accursed pederasty article together) the flute-player is a good-quality image. As I glance through Commons, here are some images I find. As a woman, I of course will dislike the first one, where the men recline and the woman, probably a slave or 'courtesan,' entertains them. I don't think the Etruscan one should go at the top, as a matter of WP:UNDUE — a Greek image needs to be dominant. The last is a little idiosyncratic, as it depicts a scene with dramatic content that makes the setting incidental. I"m genuinely sorry you're still having to deal with this. Cynwolfe (talk) 11:56, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

Hi Cynwolfe! The banned editor was groping articles like this daily for years. Part of his problem was that he was editing articles that he wasn't really interested in except as a means of promoting pederasty so of course he didn't do the research. There is no lack of symposium scenes for those who want to spend time looking (and neither you nor I have much time to spare for this). I got all the following just with the word 'symposium', though it meant wading through pictures of the US navy (!). Please choose whichever pictures you want. Naturally I would like the groper's fingerprints to be removed. The 2nd last one in my list shows Persephone and Hades together (marital bliss?). The first one in your list looks good to me for the lede - she's a professional musician and, like all performers, she struts her stuff while the audience lounges. She was probably also a prostitute but that's only an inference.

Incidentally, I apologize for any upset I might have caused you in the past. McZeus (talk) 23:59, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

Not at all! I've been made aware of how I can, er, sound in such discussions, and I'm quite sure I was impatient and rude. Although the other article still needs work, I always think of that page as a place where two "sides" had strong feelings, but serious perspectives about the article, and therefore the blunt discussions led to improving the article. Would that this were always so. Cynwolfe (talk) 13:29, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

I hadn't read the caption on "drunk man vomiting." Very amusing to think of why you'd want that on your cup — a reminder to remain temperate? This causes me to think the article could use a section on serving vessels, since these are such a part of Greek art and are a main source of how we perceive the symposium. I shall file this under "distraction." Kottabos is mentioned in the article, so it might replace the flute-player as a single-figure image, if the scene of the female flute-player goes at the top. I'll just try something here, and you can see what you think. One problem I have on Commons is the lack of information — the object is often not dated, nor described well enough to make it easy to look it up further. Also, as I read this for the purpose of choosing apt images, I see there are other issues with the article. Cynwolfe (talk) 13:29, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

I'm a little confused. Is there something wrong with the way that the article is presented, or is this just another attempt to erase the contributions of a particular editor? I remember quite a long and ultimately unproductive battle over one of Haiduc's other articles a few months ago. Reading this article, I don't see anything particularly offensive or worrisome. I note that, contrary to the implications of the above discussion, Haiduc was not banned because of his area of interest or point of view, but because of repeated edit warring and personal attacks related to same. Just because he had trouble getting along with other editors does not mean that all of his substantial contributions are suspect or ought to be expunged. P Aculeius (talk) 02:09, 24 September 2010 (UTC)

And now I am a little confused. I checked the last version to which Haiduc contributed several months ago, and I see little difference between it and this version, so I'm not sure what you're talking about, P Aculeius (good to see you again). There had been changes along the way (subheads deleted for some reason), but nothing of substance that I see. I understood that "McZeus" thought the article should be illustrated with images chosen to complement its points; two of the three images appeared to have been chosen for content that could be framed as advocating pederasty in the caption. If I'd felt they were the most representative images of the symposium available, I would've argued for keeping one or both. But since the article doesn't discuss the symposium as a locus of homoerotic activity, I chose images solely on the basis of quality, relevance to the topics discussed, and variety. (I thought the debate at Pederasty in ancient Greece, if that's one of the troublesome articles you mean, was quite productive. Participants seemed satisfied that the revised article was descriptive and not advocating a lifestyle.) Cynwolfe (talk) 03:50, 24 September 2010 (UTC)

I like the choices you have made, Cynwolfe. P Aculeius should look at my first post in this section - Haiduc smuggled in the picture 'beautiful boy' under false pretences and that's quite typical of his approach throughout WP. A fully researched article must of course include mention of pederasty, as well as hetaerae and drunkenness (a major problem in a big polis like Athens) and other issues too (the article is presently hardly more than a stub). BUT people need to have faith in the editing process. I had no faith in the process while Haiduc was active but I am beginning to have faith now that he is gone. History needs to reported as history, not as an advertisement for lifestyle choices. Incidentally, I'm wondering if the gods were imagined to have symposiums. If so, I'm sure the goddesses must have been invited too, and that opens another issue - the history of the Greek symposium must have been an evolutionary one and wives probably began to be included at some point (Christian symposiums?) The symposium is a huge topic. Again thanks Cynwolfe. Why is it always the girls who end up cleaning up the messes the guys make? McZeus (talk) 06:27, 24 September 2010 (UTC)

Regarding: "One for health, two for pleasure, three for sleep..." There is the bowl (krator), bowl (drinking cup), and reference to a "3 krator limit". Even if there are ~12-30 people at a party who are drinking with friends, instead of drinking-to-get-drunk, are you saying three "barrels" of wine is the limit, or three "glasses"? Would it be within scientific standard to replicate a symposion in Greece by some living-history philhellene group to finally come to some empirical, fact-based truth? 3:1 wine, = 25% wine: 75% water; at 12.5% ABV, divided by 3, is 4.16% alcohol by volume. 71.165.247.91 (talk) 04:31, 20 July 2014 (UTC) 71.165.247.91 (talk) 04:31, 20 July 2014 (UTC)

Should there be a section of the symposium's influence on (or co-development with) the Pessach seder, which, especially in its early centuries, was basically a symposium with philosophy replaced by history as the focus of discussion? This is likely the origin of the question of why "we recline" on Pessach, for example, being a reference to Greek-style seating.

It has been proposed in this section that multiple pages be renamed and moved. A bot will list this discussion on the requested moves current discussions subpage within an hour of this tag being placed. The discussion may be closed 7 days after being opened, if consensus has been reached (see the closing instructions). Please base arguments on article title policy, and keep discussion succinct and civil. Please use {{subst:requested move}}. Do not use {{requested move/dated}} directly. Links: current log • target log • direct move

• Symposium → Greek symposium
• Symposium (disambiguation) → Symposium

– Revisiting the previous RM. It is clear that both the ancient and modern definitions are equally primary, and I do not see why the ancient version of the symposium overshadows the modern academic conference, from which many important things sprung. I also do not have prejudice towards Ancient Greek symposium or Symposium (Ancient Greece) if the proposed location is still too vague, but Greek symposium appears to be its WP:COMMONNAME. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 10:16, 28 January 2026 (UTC) — Relisting. Jeffrey34555 (talk) 07:03, 5 February 2026 (UTC) — Relisting. TarnishedPath^talk 10:25, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

• Oppose per the articulate arguments last time; I can't see anything has changed, except perhaps "symposium" has become less common as a term for modern meetings. If moved Symposium (Ancient Greece) would be far better. Johnbod (talk) 13:22, 28 January 2026 (UTC)
• Leaning toward Symposium (ancient Greece), with lowercase "ancient". There does not seem to be any clear indication that readers are nearly always looking for the ancient Greek practice when they seek information about "Symposium". Indeed, very few people seem likely to be familiar with the archaic meaning. If anything, it seems more likely they are looking for what the term has meant within their lifetimes. Even within the lifetimes of their grandparents, academic conferences have been what the term usually refers to, at least in English. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 13:47, 28 January 2026 (UTC)

• Oppose for the same reasons ventured in the previous requested move. I think most people looking for "symposium" are looking for this topic; if they just want to know what is meant by the word in modern academia, then what they want is a dictionary definition, and we have a hatnote leading to the disambiguation page, which could be expanded to split out academic conferences. I don't think there is a third topic with a similar level of interest, so making the disambiguation page primary is unwarranted. P Aculeius (talk) 15:24, 29 January 2026 (UTC)

  @P Aculeius: While most people do appear to be looking for the ancient Greek topic, a good chunk of the outgoing pageviews are to Symposium (Plato) and Symposium (disambiguation), which combined total 33% of outgoing views. Add Symposium (Xenophon) and that becomes ~36% of misdirected people. This is way larger than most "primary" topics and indicates a probable issue with the primariness of the topic. I neglected to mention the Socratic dialogs in the nom, but they definitely add to the necessity for disambiguation in a way that the modern definition for the term does not. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 07:24, 30 January 2026 (UTC)

  However, most people searching for "Symposium" meaning a specific work by a particular author would receive that in their search results; and those who don't have the hatnote to the disambiguation page. In addition, I think that disambiguation pages should generally be labeled as such, rather than being treated as primary topics. While there may not always be a primary topic, making a disambiguation page primary has the disadvantage of suggesting to readers that there is a primary topic, only to surprise them when they arrive there; and it can be confusing when people expect a page with the parenthetical "disambiguation" to be clearly identified and thus easily located. So my preference remains for the general topic "Symposium" to be primary, distinguished from similar topics using disambiguation, and the disambiguation page labeled "disambiguation". P Aculeius (talk) 15:47, 30 January 2026 (UTC)

  In general, I think this could be an argument against the WP:DABNAME / WP:MALPLACED / WP:MISPLACED guideline. It says that it is preferred for disambiguation pages to not contain "(disambiguation)" in their titles unless that term is necessary to distinguish them from a primary topic. It might be more clear for readers if all disambiguation pages contained "(disambiguation)" in their titles. But I doubt there will be sufficient support for reversing that guideline; it seems well accepted. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 18:19, 30 January 2026 (UTC)

  But my position is that this is the primary topic, and should remain so. The proposal effectively makes a disambiguation page primary, even though you can technically say that "there is no primary topic". The effect is the same; instead of ensuring that most people arrive at the target they're most likely to be searching for, it guarantees that nobody arrives at the topic they're searching for, but instead has to navigate through a list of options. There are cases where that may be the best choice, but this isn't one of them, IMO. P Aculeius (talk) 18:38, 31 January 2026 (UTC)

• Support: with this article being moved to Symposium (ancient Greece). There is WP:NOPRIMARYTOPIC. Just because Academic conference isn't called 'Symposium (some disambiguator)' doesn't mean that it is to be excluded from primary topic considerations, which is what most of the oppose arguments in the previous move request (from 2011!) are doing, were policies different back then? Arnav Bhate (talk • contribs) 10:45, 1 February 2026 (UTC)

• Oppose The words of "conference" or "workshop" are by far more frequently used to describe modern academic meetings. The use of symposium is less and less used if ever in same fields. I also doubt readers searching for "symposium" seek to read what an academic meeting is. My 2 cents. A.Cython(talk) 05:27, 9 February 2026 (UTC)

Note: WikiProject Classical Greece and Rome, WikiProject Food and drink, WikiProject LGBTQ+ studies, WikiProject Food and drink/Wines task force, and WikiProject Greece have been notified of this discussion. TarnishedPath^talk 10:24, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

• Leaning support per WP:NOPRIMARYTOPIC. I'm not convinced that the meaning of symposium as academic conference is equally significant as the ancient meaning, but Symposium (Plato) gets nearly three times as many views as Symposium, and 50% more daily views than every other meaning listed at Symposium (disambiguation) put together. Caeciliusinhorto-public (talk) 10:46, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

  Is the traffic to Plato's work due to readers searching for the term or because they clicked his work while reading his bio. Your argument would be valid for the former but not for the latter. There are 10 times more readers for Plato than his work . For popularity see where symposium is the least frequent used word and it is in decreasing trend. A.Cython(talk) 17:49, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

  According to WikiNav, 42.62% of Symposium (Plato)'s pageviews in the last month came from searches and only 2.77% from the page on Plato. That article received a slightly higher percentage of its pageviews from searches than this one (here it's 39.9%); Symposium received 2873 pageviews from searches and Symposium (Plato) received 11265. I won't make similar calculations for the other pages titled "symposium", but I think it's fairly clear that this page isn't primary with respect to WP:PT1. – Michael Aurel (talk) 21:12, 21 February 2026 (UTC)

  I honesty do not understand the logic used here. Just the reader clicked something they found interesting does not mean that they were in the wrong page. A.Cython(talk) 05:53, 22 February 2026 (UTC)

  You asked Is the traffic to Plato's work due to readers searching for the term or because they clicked his work while reading his bio, and I've shown that it's the former. I'm not quite sure what you mean by Just the reader clicked something they found interesting, but it doesn't seem to be related to the statistics I presented in my comment. – Michael Aurel (talk) 07:49, 22 February 2026 (UTC)

• Oppose, this remains the most frequent usage of a term used less and less for anything else. Chiswick Chap (talk) 15:26, 12 February 2026 (UTC)
• Support Symposium (ancient Greece). No primary topic. It is most certainly not true that "this remains the most frequent usage of [the] term". It's a very common term for an academic conference and, I would say, far more common than the Greek definition. -- Necrothesp (talk) 15:40, 17 February 2026 (UTC)
• Support "Symposium (ancient Greece)". Per my comment above, this page isn't primary with respect to WP:PT1. I also don't think it's self-evident that this article's subject is of "substantially greater enduring notability and educational value" (WP:LTS) than the work by Plato. WikiNav records that a really quite substantial portion of this page's readership leaves to other pages titled "Symposium", indicating that the current configuration is sending many readers to somewhere other than the page they were looking for. – Michael Aurel (talk) 21:17, 21 February 2026 (UTC)

  As said above the logic lies on an unsupported assumption that we cannot yet verify. The Symposium satisfy the WP:PT2, i.e., long-term significance if it has substantially greater enduring notability and educational value than any other topic associated with that term. On cannot understand Plato's title unless one knows what it means, thus marking it as primary. There are works with the same title. The popularity contest should not apply here. A.Cython(talk) 05:59, 22 February 2026 (UTC)

  This page received 2873 pageviews from searches last month, and Symposium (Plato) received 11265. I don't see anything unverified about that. If you're referring to the last part of my comment, 40.93% of this page's outgoing pageviews are to other topics known as "symposium". While it's of course true that not all of those people arrived at the wrong page, that number is high enough that it's clear many people did; the link with the most amount of outgoing pageviews after Symposium (Plato) and Symposium (disambiguation) is kottabos, which received only 5.27%. The 40.93% figure also doesn't include people who made their way to another topic known as "symposium" by some other means (such as searching).

  I don't agree that "you need to know about one to understand the other's title" is a correct application of WP:LTS. It asks about substantially greater enduring notability and educational value, and I don't think it's clear that this article's subject is considerably more likely to endure than the work by Plato. – Michael Aurel (talk) 07:43, 22 February 2026 (UTC)

• Oppose -- Wikipedians being who we are, demographically and educationally speaking, I suspect our worlds have a lot more academic symposia than most people's! Michael Aurel may well have a point about the Plato dialogue, but that's a seperate conversation (and I'm not sure readers looking for the Platonic text are better served by being sent to a disambiguation page versus being sent to the one on the drinking party, with a hatnote). UndercoverClassicist ^T·C 09:53, 22 February 2026 (UTC)