Athenian painted pottery from the late Archaic and early Classical period frequently depicts images of the symposion, a popular ancient Greek drinking banquet which played an important role in ancient Athenian society. Some of these depictions include images of Eastern foreigners alongside Athenian symposiasts, identified by clothing associated with ethnic groups from ancient Mesopotamia and regions around the Black Sea. Traditionally, scholars have accepted these images as literal depictions of Eastern foreigners in the symposion or as representations of a symposiarch's authority. However, a closer look at these images and their role in the symposion suggests a different interpretation of the Eastern figures. This thesis analyzes how images were perceived by viewers at the time in the social context of the symposion and how Athenian iconography of Eastern foreigners overlapped to create a generalized "Otherness" in the Athenian imagination. In this context, the common activities and images of the symposion reinforced a shared identity among the participants, using ancient Greek pottery to present the Eastern Other as an example of poor symposion behavior, thus associating Athenian identity with proper symposion behavior. / Master of Arts / During the 6th and early 5th centuries BCE, painted pottery in ancient Athens frequently depicted images of the symposion, a type of drinking banquet popular in Athens during the period. Some images of this drinking party depict images of Eastern foreigners alongside Greek banqueters, identified by clothing associated with ethnic groups from ancient Mesopotamia and regions around the Black Sea. Traditionally, scholars have accepted these images as literal depictions of Eastern foreigners in the drinking banquet. However, a closer look at these images and how they were understood by Athenian audiences suggests a different interpretation of the Eastern figures. This thesis analyzes how images were perceived by viewers at the time and how other images of Eastern foreigners on Athenian painted pottery created stereotypes of these groups in the Athenian imagination. In this context, the activities of the symposion drinking banquet and the images which depict it associate Eastern foreigners with poor drinking behavior to associate Athenians with proper drinking behavior by contrast.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/115327 |
| Date | 05 June 2023 |
| Creators | O'Keefe, Brendan Dever |
| Contributors | Material Culture and Public Humanities, Knoblauch, Ann-Marie, Moseley Christian, Michelle Yvonne, Bugh, Glenn R. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
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