The Judgment of Animals in Classical Greece: Animal Sculpture and ...

y what these features were thought to mean it terms of its character—an essentially
abstract aspect of the animal. It is clear, therefore, that the style of the Kerameikos lion is
based on a blending of how ancient Greek society saw the lion and what it thought about
it.
Further, Willemsen notes that the lion from the Kerameikos lacks a lower back
and a backbone, and has also his legs undeveloped, characteristics, which, according to
him, contribute to the non-naturalistic appearance of the statue. 215 The author of the
Physiognomics states, however, that “those [animals] that are small in the waist are
hunters: witness lions and dogs” (810b) [174]. Such an ancient Greek view of the lion
having a small waist may help explain why the Kerameikos lion lacks a lower back, a
feature that would make the statue quite naturalistic in the eyes of ancient viewers.
Further, the fact that the statue does not have a visible backbone may be directly related
to the statement of Plato in the Critias mentioned above, that viewers were tolerant of
inaccuracies in works of art that depicted non-human subjects, without, however,
dismissing them as unsuccessful representations [143]. Finally, the legs of the statue
have been noted earlier for the overall impression of power they convey. That the author
of the Physiognomics speaks of powerful extremities in humans as a sign of bravery
(Phgn. 807a) [169] may be indicative of the sculptor’s underlying intention to show the
character of this animal. Such an application of a human characteristic to an animal is
not, however, peculiar, since the author of the Physiognomics makes extensive use—
throughout the entire treatise—of human bodily signs drawn from the animal kingdom. 216
215 Willemsen, Die Löwenkopf-Wasserspeier 54.
216 Regarding the presence of stiff wings in birds, for example, the author of the Physiognomics (806b) says
that this is a sign of bravery, whereas those with soft ones are cowardly. Exactly the same thing occurs, he
says, with races of men; thus those living in the north are brave and stiff-haired and those in the south are
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