At the Symposium: Why Take Off our Boots? About the Significance of the Boots Placed Underneath the Klinè in Attic Red-Figure Vases Imagery (c.a. 500-440 BC).* It is a fact that the Ancient Greeks wore shoes to go outside, and took off their shoes to go to bed, to eat, and to bathe. As Arthur Bryant shows (Bryant 1899), the Ancient Greek vocabulary included many words for shoes such as: sandals (ıΪθįαζα), ὅlippeὄὅ (ίζα૨IJαδ), ἴootὅ oὄ short boots (ελβῖįİμν εσγκλθκδν ἐηίΪIJβμ), men’ὅ shoes (ἐηίΪįİμ), women’ὅ ὅhoeὅ (İλδίαλέįİμ), shoes for the rich or the poor, or from Beotia or δaἵonia (Λαεπθδεαέ)έ However, the characters depicted in vase painting tend to be barefoot. Therefore, there must be some meaning attached to whether a character is depicted with his shoes on or off. Similarly, a pair of shoes depicted in a picture beside their owner must carry some meaning. Pairs of boots depicted as objects beside their owners can be seen on several vases, mostly drinking cups, dated between ca. 510-440 BC. These boots appear to be either placed on the ground or on a stool, under a banquet bed on which a symposiast is reclining. The boots have a simple shape, straight and mid-calf, sometimes with the upper part folded downwards. Overall, it is difficult to conclusively identify exactly what kind of shoes they are. These shoes could be embades (felt shoes for ordinary citizens), lakonikai (a type of shoe worn by both men and women) or even kothornoi (boots worn by tragic actors with no difference between the right and left shoe) 1 ? However, one thing * I wish to thanks Dr. Sadie Pickup and Dr. Sue Blundell for the opportunity given to talk about ancient Greek footwear. My gratitude goes also to Ina Kristen Simon for her review of the English text.