Young Man and Hetaera In this scene painted on the inside of a drinking cup, a hetaera holds the head of a young man who has clearly had too much to drink. Sexual and comic scenes were common on Greek pottery, particularly on objects that would have been used at a private dinner party hosted by a citizen, known as a symposium. Wives did not attend symposia, but hetaerae and entertainers were often hired to perform for the male guests.
(Painter: Makron, drinking cup [kylix], Greek, Late Archaic Period, about 490–480 B.C. Place of manufacture: Greece, Attica, Athens; ceramic, Red Figure; Height: 12.8 cm. [5 1/16in.]; Diameter: 33.2 cm. [13 1/16in.]/Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA/Henry Lillie Pierce Fund, 01.8022/Photograph © 2015 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. All Rights Reserved/Bridgeman Images)