Great Crater of Columns; Greece, Attic, 5th century BC. Ceramics. Attached thermoluminescence certificate from QED Laboratoire. Measures: 51 x 45 cm. Large columned krater, attributed to the Painter of Florence (c. 465-440 B.C.) that appears decorated with scenes on each of its faces. The obverse, with a symposium scene showing three reclining men receiving the attentions of a young servant carrying an oinochoe for pouring wine and a maid playing the aulos (double flute). The figure of the central bearded man is also shown playing a chelys (Greek 8-stringed instrument). In the lower part, tables with kylix for drinking wine on them can be seen. The scene on the reverse shows three men in cloaks having a conversation. Two carry walking sticks on which they lean and between two of them is a strigilum that appears to be hanging on the wall. The scenes are framed by double vertical bands decorated with dots. The embouchure presents the same type of decoration but with horizontal bands. The neck of the obverse presents a wide band decorated with ovals arranged vertically and vertical black bands that narrow at the bottom. The piece presents restorations on fracture lines and some areas reconstructed with repainting, normal in this type of large pieces. Both the piece and the drawings are in a very good state of preservation. The Symposium was an event common to all ancient Greeks, who loved the joy of banquets on the occasion of family feasts, city festivals or any other event worthy of celebration: various successes, especially in the competitions of poets or athletes, the arrival or departure of a friend, etc.. The banquets (symposia) even gave rise to a literary genre, as evidenced, among others, by Plato's Banquet and Xenophon's Banquet, and much later Plutarch's Table Talks (Symposiac). The word symposium (Ancient Greek ?????????, sympósion), which we translate as banquet, properly means "gathering of drinkers". The crater was a type of Greek pottery intended to contain a mixture of water and wine, with which the cups were filled. It was moved to the place of the meal and placed on a dais or sometimes on the floor and the cupbearer administered the liquid with a spoon or kyathos, filling the cups of the diners. Dimensions 51 x 45 cm. Notes Attached thermoluminescence certificate from QED Laboratoire.