Science at the Symposium
Ancient historians have devoted a great deal of work to studying the drinking and dinner parties known as symposia, using many types of historical evidence, including archaeological objects and literary texts. In the 1980s, Oswyn Murray, inspired by contemporary anthropology, described the symposion as a select all-male group bound by mutual obligation and shared activity. I am intrigued by the setting of the symposium as a site of knowledge production, reception and negotiation, particularly as it relates to what we think of as ‘scientific’ knowledge.
Was scientific knowledge being pursued or developed at symposia? What does it mean to claim that science was being done in this particular social setting. For today, my chief informant is Plutarch, who in the Table-Talk (Quaestiones convivales) describes in detail a number of conversations on a broad range of topics, including some which might be classified as ‘science’, mathematics, and medicine. I will review a few of the subjects discussed, asking what is accomplished by choosing the discursive and dialogic setting (especially as Plutarch used other genres to consider similar topics). I will then turn to Vitruvius, who describes objects which may have been designed for and used at symposia, and will briefly consider writings of Hero of Alexandria as well as some archaeological evidence for devices that may also have featured at symposia.
This event is co-sponsored by the Science in Human Culture Program
Erin Elmore
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