Meanings
- historicalA drinking together; a symposium.
Thus, what begins as a komastic venture does not end in a symposion, even though the action keeps it firmly in mind.
2013, Fiona Hobden, The Symposion in Ancient Greek Society and Thought, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 1773 more examples
Captain Waverley,—my young and esteemed friend, Mr Falconer of Balmawhapple, has craved of my age and experience, as of one not wholly unskilled in the dependencies and punctilios of the duello or monomachia, to be his interlocutor in expressing to you the regret with which he calls to remembrance certain passages of our symposion last night, which could not but be highly displeasing to you, as serving for the time under this present existing government.
1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], “Repentance, and a Reconciliation”, in Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], 2nd edition, volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 162The imagery is that of marriage, the iconographic theme was borrowed from the banquet, but these divine couples are not participating in a symposion.
2011, Pauline Schmitt Pantel, “Dionysos, the Banquet and Gender”, in Renate Schlesier, editor, A Different God? Dionysos and Ancient Polytheism, De Gruyter, →ISBN, section “Dionysiac Realms in Perspective”, page 134The addition of inscribed names can indicate that the symposion is mythological, as on the Eurytios krater, where Herakles is depicted banqueting as a guest of the king (Paris, Musée du Louvre, E635, Payne, 1931: pl. 27).
2011, Alexandra Alexandridou, The Early Black-Figured Pottery of Attika in Context (c. 630-570 bce) (Monumenta Graeca et Romana; 17), Brill, →ISBN, page 67, column 2
Origin
- Ancient Greekσυμπόσιον
- Ancient Greekσυμπόσιον
- Englishsymposion
Borrowed from Ancient Greek συμπόσιον (sumpósion).
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Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
symposion. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/symposion
“symposion.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/symposion. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “symposion,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/symposion.
Source: symposion on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.