ABSTRACT
Some representations of the symposium show a pair of boots placed on the floor beneath the kline. This pair of boots is largely accepted as a sign of the symposiast’s Athenian citizenship. It is also interpreted as a simple gesture: that climbing onto the kline necessitates the removal of shoes. However, recent studies on the significance of wearing shoes – or not – in ancient Greek iconography indicate that this gesture can be interpreted on a symbolic level. Taking off shoes or changing footwear is a sign of an entry into another world: the Underworld but also the divine world (as with Jason, the consultant at the Trophonion in Lebadea, or Strepsiades in Aristophanes’ Clouds). Likewise, drunkenness is a change in one’s state of mind. Thereby, we can interpret the ‘shoes off’ gesture as a sign of the symposiasts’ entry into the Dionysiac state. In other words: the drinker removes his shoes to enter the joyful world of wine and Dionysos and leaves his own identity behind. The gesture is also a sign of eroticism: removal of shoes is a prelude to sexual intercourse. This chapter proposes an overview of the imagery of shoes (especially boots) in the symposium and considers the potential symbolic interpretation of the ‘shoes off’ schema.
