EPISODE THREE:

THE SYMPOSIUM

In today's episode...

Welcome to the third instalment of the Agora Gossip podcast! Today’s episode is all about the symposium. We will be exploring who was invited, how they were more than just an excuse to get drunk, and what actually happened when Greek men gathered in one room and drank a lot of wine!

You could even join in on the festivities and enjoy this podcast with a glass of wine (only if it's mixed with water, though... if you want to know why, you'll have to listen to the podcast to find out!)

If you want to hear more about this, then press play and listen to the third episode of Agora Gossip!

Agora GossipEpisode Three

00:00 / 08:22

Transcript here

PODCAST CREDITS

Host

Freya Betts

Thumbnail

Cloud images - Sir Aqui

Border/temple/leaves - Canva

Music

All music was found on Pixabay

In Horto - theromancrow

Ancient Legend - SergePavkinMusic

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Here is a list of works I consulted when making this episode. Feel free to check them out to further your knowledge!

Primary sources

Demosthenes, Against Neaera, 59.33, trans. by Norman W. DeWitt and Norman J. DeWitt (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1949) in Perseus Digital Library <http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0014.tlg059.perseus-eng1:33> [accessed 29 August 2025].

Secondary literature

Glazebrook, Allison, ‘hetairai’, Oxford Classical Dictionary, 19 November 2020, <https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.3080> [accessed 29 August 2025].

Henderson, William J, ‘Aspects of the ancient Greek Symposium’, Akroterion, 45:1 (2000), 6-25.

Hornblower, Simon and Antony Spawforth, The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilisation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998).

Lissarrague, François, The Aesthetics of the Greek Banquet: Images of Wine and Ritual (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1990).

Murray, Oswyn, ‘Symposium’, Oxford Classical Dictionary, 7 March 2016, <https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.6174> [accessed 29 August 2025].

Murray, Oswyn, ‘The Culture of the Symposion’, in A Companion to Archaic Greece, ed. by Kurt A. Raaflaub and Hans van Wees (Chichester: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2013). pp. 567-583.

Nevett, Lisa C., Domestic Space in Classical Antiquity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010).

Osborne, Robin, ‘Intoxication and Sociality: The Symposium in the Ancient Greek World, Past & Present, 222:9 (2014), 34-60.