Cup with a Symposium

In the round picture inside this cup, a bearded man lies on a banqueting couch and listens to a young woman playing the double flute. A drinker would have uncovered the scene as he emptied the cup. Outside, on each side, two couches hold pairs of guests, each a youth and an older bearded man. Some listen to an elegant flute player, others talk, and a boy serves the wine.

It was painted in Athens between 460 and 450 BC, and it shows the symposium, the drinking party where guests mixed wine with water and passed the evening with conversation, music, poetry and games. The Etruscans took up these parties, and the museum points out what travelled with them. Along with the cups and the fine wines came songs, verses and party games. This cup made that journey to Vulci and was buried in a tomb there, where the archaeologist Raniero Mengarelli found it in 1931.