The Symposion ― Drinking Greek Style: Essays on Greek Pleasure 1983-2017

As a social institution the Greek symposion exerted a powerful influence on archaic, classical, and later Greek culture, from perceptions of politics and philosophy, to attitudes towards sexuality, death, and religion. This volume collects together papers exploring the symposion by Oswyn Murray, a scholar whose work ignited and defined the field.

Oswyn Murray, Emeritus Fellow, Balliol College, Oxford

Oswyn Murray is an Emeritus Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. He studied under the great scholar Arnaldo Momigliano before taking up a research position at the Warburg Institute and becoming successively, between 1968 and 2004, Tutor, Senior Tutor, vice-Master, and Director of the Graduate Centre at Balliol. He is the author of Early Greece (originally published by Fontana Press in 1980 and translated into numerous languages, including Chinese) and over a hundred articles, and has also edited, among other volumes, The Oxford History of the Classical World (OUP, 1986), The Greek City (OUP, 1990), Sympotica (OUP, 1990), and In Vino Veritas (The British School at Rome, 1995). His current interests include Herodotus' Histories (on which he is overseeing the publication of a major new commentary), the history of classical scholarship from 1700 to the present day, and the history of pleasure. In his spare time he makes his own cider.

Vanessa Cazzato trained in Milan, Dublin, and Oxford and currently holds a post-doctoral research position in the Netherlands, where she works on archaic and classical Greek poetry.



Michael Gabriel, painter, illustrator, and printmaker, has specialized in animation art direction and background painting, with work on films including The Snowman, Pink Floyd-The Wall, The Tailor of Gloucester, Pumpkin Moon, and We're Going On A Bear Hunt. He is an associate artist at Oxford Playhouse where he draws from live theatre.