Abstract
This essay builds on work in The Poetics of Consent (2013), which argues that the Iliad’s representation of politics reflects the workings of the oral tradition underlying the poem as we have it, a tradition that developed in the context of Panhellenic festivals. Applying a similar perspective to poetry belonging to the very different performative context of the symposium, this essay draws evidence from Theognis and Alcaeus suggesting that the social dynamics of sympotic performance could be expressed in terms of political fragmentation and alienation. In the Odyssey, the contrast between the epic singers Phemios and Demodokos reflects an awareness of the difference between these performative contexts.