Images of hetairai most often are depicted on the pottery vessels used at the symposium, where men of the aristocracy gathered after the evening meal to drink watered wine served by young slaves of both sexes, who often were chosen for their beauty.
As important to the symposium as drinking was the entertainment, which included games such kottabos, music and dancing, acrobatic display, drinking songs (scolia) and lyric poetry; and even short speeches. It was a setting from which respectable freeborn women were excluded, their place taken by the flute-girl, the slave boy, and the companionship of the courtesan.
The ideal symposium almost was ritualistic: to savor the aesthetic pleasure of the wine, to be intoxicated just enough to relax and release the mind from inhibition and to stimulate conversation. Discourse often waivered, however; and scenes on red-figure vases often depict more debauched behavior.
