The symposion is the most frequently represented artistic theme on Attic red-figure containers of the Archaic period. Within this fundamental theme lie several sub-themes, many of which we know from literary sources--of this period and later--to have been the defining activities of the symposion: wine, entertainment (dancing, music and song), conversation and last, but certainly not least, sex. One activity in particular portrayed on these containers is the singing of a poem, a practice which soon came to be known as singing the $\sigma\kappa\acute o\lambda\iota o\nu,$ or $\acute\eta\ \pi\alpha\rho o\acute\iota\nu\iota\alpha\ {\buildrel{,}\over{\\omega}}\grave o\acute\eta,$ a term which, it is argued, we can properly extend back to the Archaic period. These visual representations of sympotic singing offer a valuable record of the public performance of poetry in Archaic Greece, and offer a glimpse into the mechanics of the practice of the $\sigma \kappa \acute o \lambda\iota o\nu$. A small group of containers (numbering about fourteen) also record the song itself--at least in part--by means of dipinto (or once, incised) inscriptions; some of these verse-scraps have been paralleled to surviving poetry of the period. This thesis catalogues and examines these containers and their inscriptions as evidence, after examining in detail the surviving literary record, for the practice of the $\sigma\kappa\acute o\lambda\iota o\nu$. Original solutions for previously misunderstood verse-scraps are proposed and two containers preserving verse-scraps are identified for the first time as records of $\sigma\kappa o\lambda\acute\iota\alpha.$ It is concluded that, while this small group of containers cannot be entirely representative of the total body of surviving material evidence for the practice of the $\sigma\kappa\acute o\lambda\iota o\nu$, there are striking parallels between the artistic and literary records which call for attention of a wider scope.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/9701 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Anderson, Peter John. |
| Contributors | Kilmer, M., |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 116 p. |
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