Etruria & Greece: Feasting As A Social Institution

Feasting is an institution which is near-universal amongst human societies, although the roles that it plays within a given societies, and the precise details of the rituals, actions, participants and physical objects involved vary significantly. In a broad theoretical sense, feasting can be understood as the 'ritualization of agricultural surplus' (Murray 1990: 4), which must be channelled into some form of social use, which in turn will become socially mediated. A prerequisite for feasting is therefore the existence of an agricultural society, without which the necessary amounts of food/drink to hold a feast would not be available. Bronze/Iron Age Mediterranean societies maintained cohesion, in part, through the notion of commensality; this is true of both the Greeks and the Etruscans. Analysis of the archaeological evidence; artefacts, drinking vessels, klines, kraters, wall frescoes, tombs and paintings can collectively contribute to our understanding of the feasting institutions of both societies. Despite common influences, it is apparent that feasting in the two geographical locales varied in terms of practise and societal role. Both encapsulated some concept of social elitism; however, whilst Greek society held the symposium (drinking) as distinct from eating, and primarily as a forum to forge socio-political connections, the Etruscans combined eating and drinking into the banquet, and used it in a wider range of contexts, including funerary ceremonies, as well as expanding it to become more socially inclusive. Whilst discussing feasting practises in Greek and Etruscan societies, it is key to have some understanding of the geopolitical background of the Mediterranean region between 800-400BCE. The vast expanse of the Mediterranean Sea, the largest inland water body in the world, acted as a 'facilitator of contact' (Alcock et al. 2009: 473), trade, travel and a deep resource pool, which carried great 'inherent risk' (Alcock: 473) in its manipulation and use, but also great potential benefit. Many ancient civilizations traced their genesis to the coastal regions of the Mediterranean, for example the Phoenicians and the Greeks, both renowned for their seafaring technologies and trade expeditions. Between the 8th and 6th centuries BCE, Greek colonization intensified dramatically, leading to the establishment of colonies in Sicily (Syracuse), North Africa, parts of southern France and Spain, the Black Sea, and the southern Italian peninsula (Magna Graecia). The Etruscan civilization, a loose conglomeration of 12 city-states roughly corresponding to modern-day Tuscany, came into extensive contact with the Greeks through these trading networks (Alcock: 491). It was not only physical objects, however, that passed between the Greeks and the Etruscans; but ideologies, practises and aspects of culture. Therefore, one should understand that the nature of the Mediterranean as a focal political, economic and cultural nexus of trade was a crucial factor in the transmission of the feasting institution from Greece to Etruria. On a basic level, feasting can be understood simply as an entertainment event. A substantial amount of Greek pottery art from the Archaic revolves around scenes of merriment/inebriation at symposia, despite the general understanding that excessive drinking and losing control of one's senses was a sign of barbarism or 'incivility'. One image by the Brygos Painter, for example, (named such for his work on the potter Brygos' bowls), c.500BCE and currently in the National Museum of Denmark, illustrates a drunk man vomiting as a slave wipes his forehead. Drinking games were also evidently common; kottabos, a game where wine dregs were flung at targets from a kylix (drinking vessel), was popular in both Greece and Etruria during the 5-4th centuries BCE. Music and poetry recitals were also common, widely illustrated in art, e.g. an image of a woman playing the aulos by the Nikias Painter on an Attic red-figure bell-krater. It is evident that there was a simple dimension of drunkenness and enjoyment to feasting institutions in Greek and Etruscan societies; however, these represent only a small part of their function, and ignore the complex socio-political mechanisms that banqueting, symposia and feasting played. One aspect of the role of feasting in both Greek and Etruscan societies is the maintenance and reinforcement of hierarchy and status. In a manner very similar to studies of Indian 'gastro-politics' by Appadurai in contemporary anthropology, the feasting institution could have conceivably served as a means by which the economic power of the social elite could have been demonstrated overtly by privileged individuals. Blake et al. note of ritual in general that it can 'emphasize the exclusive nature of the group and their privileges' in a private context (Blake et al. 2005: 106) and of feasting specifically that it can 'create and maintain social cohesion.' (Blake: 107). This succinctly describes the dual nature of feasting and symposia, able to simultaneously create and re-form social structures, to serve as a mechanism of exclusivity in the indication of status. In terms of the archaeological evidence, equipment specifically dedicated to feasting, e.g. amphorae and kraters (large mixing vessels) are fairly rare in the Bronze Age Greek record (compared to other forms of pottery and food/drink-related artefacts), thus strongly suggesting an 'exclusionary purpose' to indicate and reinforce elite status in Greek society. (Blake: 123). Similarly, the symposium has been evaluated as a 'marker of aristocracy' and a civic institution 'creating exclusive identity' (Schmitt-Pantel 1990: 15); in other words, a ritualized act serving to delineate the wealthy, powerful aristocracy from the common people by means of the physical objects and specific traditions involved. Around 700 BCE, kraters were produced in Corinth depicting scenes of symposia, a sharp contrast from the earlier forms used primarily as grave markers; and the nature of (i.e. alcohol vessels) and images on Attic pottery c.520BCE bears testament to the rising popularity of formal symposia in privileged circles (Whitley 2001: 208). The symposium as a denotation of wealth and status was transmitted to Etruscan society, 'the adoption of the banquet [being] the most conspicuous expression of the aristocracy in Italy' (Rathje 1990: 279). Many of the physical objects utilized in banqueting/feasting in Etruria have been preserved in the archaeological record; and many of these are either directly traded from the Near East/Greece, or bear strong Orientalizing influences and/or motifs. Neo-Assyrian rhyton (drinking horns), Phoenician cups, bowls and pouring vessels, and Greek metalwork have all been found in Central Italy. Perhaps the best example of the Greek influence on Etruscan feasting is bucchero pottery, which heavily imitated Hellenic styles in terms of the glossy black finish, intended to emulate metal, and the increasingly 'exotic' shapes of the vessels themselves. The importation and adoption of Eastern Mediterranean wares attest to the 'cultural influence' and 'special importance of the banquet' (Rathje: 282). The nature of the feasting institution as creating and reifying a distinction between the elite and the rest of society is also reflected in wall frescoes, e.g. those at the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing (c.6th century BCE) in the Tarquinia necropolises, depicting classic master-servant relations. Contemporary anthropology holds the general view that 'the choice of food and drink contributes to the definition of social groups...their embodied values are incorporated into the consumer' (Goodman et al. 2007: 14); i.e., whilst social status may define what type of food an individual is able to eat, the food that he chooses in turn formulates part of his social identity and status. Both the Greek symposium and Etruscan feasting/banqueting can be understood in light of this paradigm, in that both societies emphasized the consumption of wine instead of beer, viewing beer to be a poorer, inferior and 'common' form of wine, which represented sophistication, refinement and the essence of civilization and status (Blake: 123). Hence, we can understand the feasting institution, specifically the drinks chosen for consumption, as a means of exclusionary differentiation between those with power and those without. A notable difference between the Greeks and Etruscans, reflected in the nature of their respective symposia/feasting events, is the role of women in societal hierarchy. As well as emphasizing the social dissimilarity between the elites and common people, the Greek symposia also underlined what were understood to be inherent gender differences between men and women, with females reduced to a subordinate status of serving and catering in the feasting context. Depictions in Greek art show exclusively male events, for example the Tomb of the Diver in Paestum, South Italy (Greek colony), which depicts the central and classic features of symposia. Feasting events served as an axis upon which identities and roles could be attached and structured, implicated in the 'representation, reproduction and transformation of gender identity and in the gendered division of feasting labor [sic]' (Dietler et al. 2001: 11). In contrast, the archaeological record concerning Etruria suggests that women shared some form of equality and social parity, at least in the context of feasting. The wall fresco at the Tomb of the Leopards, located in the Montorezzi necropolis and dated to c.480-450BC (Brendel 1995: 269), depicts multiple male-female couples reclining on couches. Both the men and women are being served by the attendant child servants (indicating no difference in status between the genders), and are generally depicted of equal stature, richness of clothing/ornamentation and prominence within the image. Further material evidence of women's status are found across the geographical locale of the Etruscan civilization, e.g. two red impasto vessels from the Tomba dei Denti di Lupo (Caere), upon which are inscribed the name of a woman, indicating ownership of the vessels (which would be used in banqueting) and thus social rank and importance (Stoddart 2009: 33-34). Whilst we can assume that the Etruscans were socially progressive in terms of gender and believed the sexes to be equal, the Greeks viewed the presence of women at Etruscan banquets as a sign of barbarism (Murray 1990: 6), and often derided women of Etruria as prostitutes (as prostitutes would be the only women allowed to partake in Greek feasting). We can therefore interpret the archaeological evidence, alongside written records, as illustrating the presence of gender inequality in Archaic Greek society as reflected in the symposium, and demonstrating that this discrimination was not transmitted to Etruscan society with the feasting institution itself. Whilst both Etruscan and Greek feasting served to reinforce the status of social elites, there were significant differences in the other roles that they played and in the modes of commensality. The Greek symposium, as previously mentioned, was an exclusively male event, and acted as a space where public and private spheres of life could be brought together (Blake: 106). The oikos (household) and polis (city) were deemed to be two separate entities; in the symposium, and individual could bring together his day-to-day companions into what could loosely be termed a 'brotherhood' who were bound together by their mutual partaking of the wine. The symposium itself would serve to create deep and long-lasting personal ties between a specific group of men, and become a crucial locus of identity, with a sense of loyalty given to one's sympotic group. The competitive aspects of the polis were reflected in the symposium, where individuals could jockey for status by creating 'social debt' (Blake: 108) through their generosity, which would demand reciprocity and demonstrate their economic power. Whilst the symposium was by no means a forum for serious political discussion, it served an important function as a theatre in which connections could be strengthened and forged amongst the societal male elite, and in which younger men could be introduced to the roles, responsibilities and concepts of the adult world. Feasting in Etruscan society, on the other hand, was in the form of banqueting, where eating and drinking were combined into a single event; this is widely demonstrated on wall frescoes, such as the Tomb of the Leopards which depicts the classic features of Etruscan banqueting, including servants bearing plates of food, or the tombs at the Podere Lippi cemetery, Verrocchio, which also have frescoes illustrating platters of food.. This may be understood as a relaxation of formality, in that the deipnon (eating) and symposion (drinking), two separate institutions in Archaic Greece had become fused as one, but more accurately should be taken as an example of how the Etruscans did not copy Greek culture, but appropriate aspects of it and 'approximate...influences into a style of their own' (Barker et al. 1998: 7). The Etruscan feasting institution, also as mentioned previously, was not exclusively male and was more representative of elite society as a whole, including women (and sometimes children), and furthermore was employed in a wider range of contexts than the Greek symposium, which was generally reserved for privileged male society, socio-political bonding and the introduction of young men into adult society. In Etruria, however, banqueting was also a common occurrence at funerals or commemorations of the dead. Barker et al. describe banqueting as having a 'funerary bias' (248), noting that there are virtually no portrayals of everyday banquets, that most of the archaeological evidence for feasting comes from artefacts in tombs or frescoes on the walls of the tombs, and that some illustrations of banqueting are even located in the underworld, such as the Golini I tomb frescoes. The custom of reclining (lying down) as opposed to feasting sitting up straight was a Near Eastern phenomenon, later transmitted to Etruria, has been interpreted as a symbolic parallel with repose in death, presenting an interesting conceptual and cosmological link between feasting and funerary practises. The physical presence of klines in Etruscan tombs (Barker: 249) and traces of food (251) lend further credence to the idea of banqueting as a central and interlinked social phenomenon with death and funerals in Etruria. In conclusion, it is evident that feasting institutions in both Greece and Etruria had a core element of social elitism and exclusivity, restricted to a privileged aristocracy in both societies. Beyond this, however, the actual practises and roles fulfilled were notably different, despite a significant level of Greek influence on the development of Etruscan society. Whilst the Greek symposium generally functioned as a drinking forum for the consolidation and creation of socio-political bonds amongst an exclusively male body, the Etruscan banqueting tradition also incorporated food, was universally gender-inclusive and tended to celebrate a wider range of social events, with a specific focus on funerals and death. As a secondary conclusion, we can also state that cultural influences do not necessarily lead to a mirror replication of another society, but that each society will appropriate and modify external influences and create a new and unique synthesis of ideas, taking a previous institution and giving it a new role their own society.