Ok you food history buffs..lets have a "Symposium"

OK Cape, bring it on. :bounce: :bounce:

We must be sure to invite Papa to join us, who I hear is back home after a long voyage of his own to the lands where most of these stories began; home of the olive, the grape (some would say) and the garlic clove.

My dog Bacchus is by my side, and I am eager to discuss matters culinary throughout the ages. Shall we go chronological? Theological? Euphamistical?

Care to discuss literary sources? Culinary Quotations? Ancient recipes? (I have Louis Szathmary's collection at hand). I've a friend who could regail us on the politics of medeival food sculpture (his Master's Thesis, if you can believe it) with the passion and resources of Slow Food behind him.

There. I've poured a glass of wine. Let us Sympose.

Peace,
kmf

 

Cape, I offer to Apicius the stinking rose, in hopes of persuading him of the nobility of this spice he thought to be only for the lower classes.

Cape, I offer Apicius an herb he and I both favor: Rue - planted around Westminster Abbey centuries ago to keep out the witches; apparently effective, as I've seen no witches there.

And to you and all assembled I offer the words of Acaeus:

Come tip afew with me,
Melanippus, and you'll see
why you crossed over Acheron
once again searching for the sun.

Come drink. Don't set your sights
too high. Even King Sisyphus-
among all men, the wisest-
thought he might outsmart Death,

only to cross Acheron twice:
the judgement of Fate.
And now he labors endlesly
in Hades.

Come drink, and celebrate
while we are young. Later,
we will...the north wind blows.

What, Cape, shall we serve?

Peace,
kmf

 

Gentlemen!

What an impressive introduction to the most civilized habit of social activity!

Maybe, before defining the word Symposium we must go back to the urge of joining around the same “table” drinking wine and talking.
I think that everything starts from the definition of this tiny word “ Idiot”
Idiot comes from the ancient Greek word “idiotis”
“idiotis” was the person who never participated in the public discussions, he didn’t had an opinion of his own and the most important, none invited him to his symposium!!
What a shame! Being excluded by this noble social event!

Symposium. Syn+Pino. Drink Together!

Together yes! But who might be a guest to a Symposium?

Relatives, teachers? Of course not!

The participants were friends that they considered each other equal for you have to consider someone equal to your spiritual (and not social) status so as to drink with him and exchange opinions or topics, serious or not!

Remember how the most famous “Symposium” in History, the one of Plato, starts.

The young Agathon who is the host (or should I say the toastmaster) in this famous Symposium replies to the ironic remarks of Socrates regarding his inexperienced youth :
“ You laugh at me, Oh Socrates but let it be! As for the matter you arouse for your intellectual superiority, we will arrange this, after a while, in court, having as judge on who is wiser god Dionysus (Bacchus). For now, oh Socrates, enjoy your dinner “ (Plato, Symposium, 175e)

For a good Symposium we need a president, a Premium inter Pares (the first among equal).

The “president” was elected among the participants and the later had to obey to him. If someone violated this rule he would never be invited again and he was facing the risk of being called an…idiot!

The “president” was one duty just for one symposium. Symposia of the same group of people had different presidents. A miniature of a democratically organized society!

That is why Plato believed that a well-organized Symposium is the best school for a citizen.

It teaches you how to “govern and be governed with justice” (Plato, Laws, 643e)
“It teaches you Freedom, the obedience to Laws without pressure. It teaches courage and it’s a way to test your self-control and how well you behave your self without losing your self respect and style” (Plato, Laws, 649a)

So having the "blessings" of this great philosopher let’s start talking about Symposiums.

About the ritual, the food, the wines, about the strong connection of the participant with his drinking cup.

Let’s do what Verdi , centuries later, invited us to do in his most famous aria, from “ La Traviatta” “ Lebbiamo”!!

Let’s drink!

 

So, since women were not allowed in these intellectual meetings, I assume they were defined as idiots. We must recruit as many females as possible to participate in the symposium, then!!

Was there a topic assigned to each symposium, as dictated by the president? This is intriguing, and I think we'll have fun with it.

 

Okay, this sounds interesting and I'd like to play....but I don't think I know enough about the topic. Do you need someone to carry water or something? I'm pretty sure I could handle that much!

Seriously....I'm going to enjoy watching this thread.

 

More etomology for my dear companions!

From the Latin "con" meaning "with," and "panis," meaning "bread," a "companion" is someone with whom you break bread!

Peace,
kmf

Post Script: Yes, Cape, a typo. Alcaeus is most definitely what I meant.

 

...LIBIAMO!

Libiamo ne' lieti calici
Che la bellezza infiora
E la fuggevol ora
S'inebrii a voluttà.
Libiam ne' dolci fremiti
Che suscita l'amore,
Poichè quell'occhio al core
Onnipotente va...
Libiamo, amore tra i calici
Più caldi baci avrà.

That's OK...but what Apicius would drink?

As Horatius says,
FALERNUM, king of wines;
CALENUM, the noblemen's favourite wine;
ALBANUM, nine years old: enjoy this wine with your young lover!
MASSICUM and CECUBUM

Otherwise he would like a cup of MULSUM, wine and honey (only Ganimedes, the Gods' sommelier, knows HOW MUCH honey!)...

But...be aware! As Martialis reminds us,

"To forget, Fescennia,
the wine you drank yesterday,
you excessively swallow Cosmo's pastilles
Those pastilles make your teeth white
but remain ineffective
when a regurgitation comes up
from the bottom of your secret abyss"

Let's enjoy our Symposium!

Pongi

 

Hey! Why do you think I chose a man's name as nick-name LOL

Well women in antiquity and in symposia...

No ordinary woman could be a guest in a Symposium.
At least at the early Classical period ( end of 6th -middle 5th ce BC)
But as we assume from comedies and other literary sources , later on, the wife of the host could participate without talking of course!!!!

Women had no place in social life. The only women that they were allowed to have a social life were the prostitutes.

Those women were the most educated and interesting because they had the opportunity to discuss and learn from educated men.

remember Diotima in the Platonic symposium, she was a famous prostitute of antiquity.
Remember the wife of the father of Democracy, Pericles.

Finally remember my heroine, the famous mathematician Ypatia!!

Let's say that in order to be invited in a Symposium you should have been an...interesting woman....

So, here in Chef Talk we do not have such problem I think that the male population will agree. We all meet the first and only criterium to be guests : have an interesting personality

As for the topics. The answer is yes and no! We cannot be certain if the topics in a Symposiun was arranged in advance.
Plato has used Symposia as scenary to his philosophical dialogues.

Athenaeus of Nafkratis Symposium was syppose to have as topic a gossip on what happened to the symposium of Poseidonius the previous evening and especially what food he offered...

As for water!! yes my friends we will need water for sure for in was out of question to drink wine without water .
Why????

Oh I talked too much for now and you will eat all the food

 

I know not why there would have been water with the wine in the original Symposia, but I know that by the middle ages water most assuredly would not have been consumed alone (not by the intelligencia, at least). They did often mix wine into their water, not so much for flavor, but to kill the germs in the water. Wine in turn was sometimes diluted with water to reduce acidity and density.

Was this perhaps also what the ancients did?

I see from my Flandrin that the Italian verb "mescere" means both "to pour" and "to mix."

"What I like to drink most is wine that belongs to others."
Diogenes , 320 BC

Peace,
kmf

 

Of course we need water!
Like ancient Greeks, also Romans never drank pure wine, but mixed it with variable amounts of water and other ingredients (in example honey, as I said). The "real" wine was only for the rich people, while the poor people and the slaves drank awful alcoholics like the LOIRA, that was made macerating in water the grapes already pressed, or a drink made with must, vinegar and sweetened water. Romans also had beer, but it was only for the poor and the children.
BTW...I forgot a little more etymology!
"Cosmo's pastilles" were a remedy by the famous Roman perfume maker Cosmo, from whom derives the word "Cosmetic".

Pongi (the Ethera? )

 

BTW...in modern Italian, the verb "mescere" means only "to pour" meant as "to serve" and refers exclusively to wine and other drinks. The verb for "to mix" is "mescolare" or "mischiare". Obviously those verbs have a common latin root, just the verb "mescere" that had both meanings due, as Devotay said, to the fact that the Romans always drank wine mixing it with something else.

Pongi

 

Killing the germs , seems to be the reason that in antiquity they used to mix wine and water.

A very intriguing detail.
When the ancient Greeks wanted to purify a place they were spilling wine on the ground and the started sulfurizing the whole area!!

Funny because it seems that the passed by the invention that changed the whole procedure in wine making. The use of sulphur in keeping away the bacteria that turn wine into vinegar!!

They had the wine the had the sulphur but they didn't think to use both in order to prolong the life or their wines.We had to wait for Pasteur to acquire this knowledge.

But to return to the symposia.

The word wine comes from the greek word oinos.

Oinos was the dark , think fluid that had to be mixed in the krater with water in order to become what is known even in modern greek as krasi
Oinos + water mixed in the bell-shaped vessel called crater and we had the wine they drunk

Well the mixing proposing usually they were made for light wines as cape chef mentioned BUT
the host was keeping in his house two kraters-mixxing bowls.
One with light wine and a finer one for his own friends

Hard to forget the scene from Iliad where the angry Achilles asks from his dear friend Patroclus to pass him a glass of wine " ...But Patroclus...make it strong ".

Have I told you about the game that was performed during the Symposia by wine and it was a kind of " wine-shooting" ? Kottavos?

Oh well. let me drink my wine first.

 

How very charming! Dear Abby very much enjoyed her visit in Greece last winter. She especially loved Mount Pangeo, where Dionysos was purportedly bred. Here she was introduced to the exceptional Imiglykos Red.

Greece, to Dear Abby, means the hillsides of Mount Pangeo.

Abby

 

Just a couple of thoughts:

How many people usually attended these functions?

I would imagine that the wine they drank was very very strong, because 1 wine to 3 waters wouldn't be very good at all today. (I would think that since there were prostitutes present, they were given the strong stuff).

And what type of entertainment did they have?

I'm assuming the Egyptians also made wine, yes? Or were the Greeks the first?