The kōmos (Ancient Greek: κῶμος; pl.: kōmoi) was a ritualistic drunken procession performed by revelers in ancient Greece, whose participants were known as kōmasts (κωμασταί, kōmastaí).
The kōmos (Ancient Greek: κῶμος; pl.: kōmoi) was a ritualistic drunken procession performed by revelers in ancient Greece, whose participants were known as kōmasts (κωμασταί, kōmastaí).
01 · What it is
Living Tradition
Documented cultural tradition on record; family classification awaits an editor.
02 · Where & name
Geography awaiting source
Add a cited source naming the region or community that carries it.
03 · How it is doing
□□□□ (Not yet assessed)
Documented in open cultural records, but no cited field assessment of its current vitality has been added here yet.
04 · Proof & reuse
1 cited source
Every claim links to a public record below. Free to quote, teach, and share under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Common Questions Answered on Record
What is komos in plain words?
The kōmos (Ancient Greek: κῶμος; pl.: kōmoi) was a ritualistic drunken procession performed by revelers in ancient Greece, whose participants were known as kōmasts (κωμασταί, kōmastaí).
Where is komos practised or documented?
No verified geographic place has been linked on record yet — editors can add a cited place from the edit page.
What is the current condition of komos today?
□□□□ (Not yet assessed): Documented in open cultural records, but no cited field assessment of its current vitality has been added here yet.
How do I cite or share this komos entry?
Cite as: "komos." folkroom, https://folkroom.org/art-forms/komos, text CC BY-SA, with attribution.
The kōmos (Ancient Greek: κῶμος; pl.: kōmoi) was a ritualistic drunken procession performed by revelers in ancient Greece, whose participants were known as kōmasts (κωμασταί, kōmastaí). Its precise nature has been difficult to reconstruct from the diverse literary sources and evidence derived from vase painting.
The earliest reference to the kōmos is in Hesiod's Shield of Herakles, which indicates it took place as part of wedding festivities (line 281). And famously Alcibiades gate-crashes the Symposium while carousing in a kōmos. However, no one kind of event is associated with the kōmos: Pindar describes them taking place at the city festivals (Pythian 5.21, 8.20, Olympian 4.9), while Demosthenes mentions them taking place after the pompe and choregoi on the first day of the Greater Dionysia (Speeches 21.10), which may indicate the kōmos might have been a competitive event.
The kōmos must be distinguished from the pompe, or ritual procession, and the chorus, both of which were scripted. The kōmos lacked a chorus leader, script, or rehearsal. In the performance of Greek victory odes (epinikia) at post-Game celebrations for winning athletes, the choral singers often present themselves as kōmasts, or extend an invitation to join the kōmos, as if the formal song were a preliminary to spontaneous revelry.
The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Komos”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.
komos is ritualistic drunken procession performed by revelers in ancient Greece, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. 1
The source record links this tradition to 5 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. 1
