Join Dr Gillian Shepherd from La Trobe University on 27 May, at 7:00pm at the Greek Centre for a lecture entitled The Tomb of the Diver: Life, Death, and Drinking and in the Ancient Greek World.

The lecture is part of the Greek History and Culture Seminars, offered by the Greek Community of Melbourne.

The “Tomb of Diver” is a fifth century BC grave found outside the Greek city of Poseidonia in South Italy. Despite the 50 years that have elapsed since its discovery, the tomb remains unique: its painted internal walls depict a convivial scene of a symposion, or ritualised Greek drinking party.

The symposium was a common subject on painted ancient Greek vases, but highly unusual as funerary decoration. What does this extraordinary scene of drinking and festivity tell us about attitudes to life, death and the afterlife in ancient South Italy, and the occupant of this elaborate grave? And how do we interpret the enigmatic image of the lone diver on the lid of the tomb?

Dr Gillian Shepherd Photo: Supplied

READ MORE: Four amazing astronomical discoveries from ancient Greece

Dr Gillian Shepherd is a lecturer in Ancient Mediterranean Studies and director of the A.D. Trendall Research Centre for Ancient Mediterranean Studies at La Trobe University.

Her research interests include the ancient Greek colonisation of Sicily and Italy, burial customs, the archaeology and art of Greece and Magna Graecia, and childhood in antiquity. She is a co-editor of the recently published Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Childhood.

For more information email info@greekcommunity.com.au, this is also a hybrid seminar, can also be followed on Facebook and Youtube

Location: Greek Centre, (Mezzanine Level, 168 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne).