Classical Halloween Party Ideas
Eidolon Classics Journal
Halloween is upon us once again. Last year, we provided a helpful list of classically-themed costume suggestions for people who wanted their garb to channel antiquity. This year, since you’ve probably already used all those ideas — and you can’t be caught as a costume repeater — we’re sharing some inspiration for your classical get-togethers. Whether you’re hosting a big shindig or just handing out candy at home, this list will be sure to cover all your party planning needs and prove a hit for classicists and non-classicists alike.
1. The Roman Baths
This concept works best for those without central air. Guests progress from the cold frigidarium (chill with window units and buckets of ice; drink: beer) to the warm tepidarium (room temperature; drink: red wine) to the hot caldarium (floor heaters are an option, but install a brazier beneath your floor for an authentic effect; drink: mulled wine). The front yard can be used as a palaestra for ball games and wrestling. For a unique touch: a make-your-own strigil table. Buy aluminum foil and gallons of olive oil at Costco so your friends can wipe themselves down in the nude!
2. Caesar’s Conspirators
Great for large groups. Select one person to be Caesar. Tell this person nothing. Just a regular, average Halloween party with a normal costume, like a ghost, and regular candy everyone likes, like Charleston Chews! All other guests are conspirators and know Caesar’s identity. Everyone dresses in togas, except Caesar. The conspirators should begin plotting the assassination ASAP. (Disclaimer: Please do not actually harm Caesar.)
3. The 400s BCE
We’ve all worn tie-dye to 70s parties; fished our neon scrunchies out of that drawer crammed full of hair stuff for the 80s; even returned to grunge and boy-band-matching-outfits for 90s-themed get-togethers. What could top that but the new, updated classic, the 400s-themed Golden Age party? Guests can dress as Athenian playwrights and their dramatic characters, historians, politicians, and philosophers. If you’re attending another party on the same night, you can easily adapt a sexy nurse costume into a realistic Hippocrates! Party games include Parthenon Jenga, tragic irony charades, and a guessing contest to see how many chocolate coins are in the treasury (winner gets the coins, but has to pay a tax). For a special treat, try Delian League Red Rover: follows the normal Red Rover rules, except only the Athenian side calls people over. And they have to come over. And they always lose.
4. The Underworld
This party can only be reached via ferry. We recommend constructing your moat a few days in advance. Don’t actually serve any food, but leave a lot of empty plates with food crumbs scattered around to give your guests the feeling of Tantalus. Decorations include this Cerberus costume for your dog (and Cerberus cookies, if you want SOME food), pomegranates, photos of dead people, no lights. If you can host in a basement, even better!
5. Symposium
Honestly just skip it. It’s been done.
6. Eleusinian Mysteries
Just, you know, do the *things*. The rites, the rituals, the secret stuff, you know the drill. Alllll that mysterious shit. Have it at the Halloween party! Eleusis is actually the perfect party theme, amirite? It’s a secret though. You know what I mean! Because I definitely know them. All of the mysteries. Because I was initiated. Wait, were you initiated, even? Should you even be throwing this party? Hey, let’s go cut some dicks off some statues. Game idea: Pin the Phallus on the Mutilated Herm.
7. The Odyssey
A food-focused party. For Circe: make ham sandwiches and cut them with gingerbread man cookie cutters. Voila! Pig men. For the Cyclops, a twist on the classic roasted marshmallow: Use frosting to paint eyes on white marshmallows. Roast them on skewers over the fire to re-enact stabbing the Cyclops’s eye with a burning stake! Serve beef sliders to symbolize the cattle of Helios, and Sour Patch Kids as the men eaten by the Laestrygonians. As a festive welcome, hand out honey sticks to guests at the door so they can clog their ears with “beeswax” to avoid the Siren song.
Tori Lee definitely did not mutilate any herms.
