Part of the entertainment of the symposia held in Syracuse was the game kottabos, which essentially consisted in throwing the sediment of wine left in a cup at a target.
This object was placed in the centre of a bronze pole around two metres high called a kottabos, which is where the game took its name.
Sometimes other targets were balanced precariously along rods below, and to win, the wine would need to hit the target to make the rods fall on top of each other noisily.
The winner’s prize was usually an apple, sweets, a cup or a kiss from the loved one to whom the throw was dedicated.
