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

practice is an idea of Herodotus that implies an age before art and will be discussed
later. 357
Along with a)ga&lmata offered to Kypris, Empedocles’ fragment also mentions
zw|~a. In terms of spelling, zw|&oisi deviates slightly from the correct spelling zw=oij,
which is the dative plural of zw|~on. It seems that for reasons of metrical cohesion with
adjacent terms (i.e., eu)sebe/essin a)ga&lmasin, mu&roisi), zw|&oisi has its last syllable
terminating in an additional iota (i). 358 The fact that these zw|&oisi are called graptoi=j
(“painted” or “drawn”), which derives from gra&fw (“to paint, “to draw,” “to write”),
and are mentioned right after pious a)ga&lmata suggests a context directly involved with
the arts in a religious setting. 359 This context, in turn, creates the impression that zw|&oisi
are images of some kind, perhaps pictures, rather than “animals,” as the predominant
meaning of the term would urge one to conclude. Furthermore, the absence of additional
description relating to zw|&oisi implies that, even though this is a term for some kind of
images, it refers to them in a general way.
Modern translations of zw|&oisi offer a striking variety of meanings ranging from
“pictures,” and “figures” to “animal figures,” “pictured creatures,” and “images of living
things.” 360 As can be seen, some of these definitions provide zw|&oisi with its traditional
meaning of animal and its wider notions, whereas others stress its belonging to the realm
of images. More generally, this dichotomy indicates scholarly awareness of the split in
357 For the Greek perspective on Egypt as a land of ancient wisdom and a culture that preceded the Greek
one, see T. Harrison, “Upside Down and Back to Front: Herodotus and the Greek Encounter with Egypt,”
in R. Matthews and C. Roemer, eds., Ancient Perspectives on Egypt (London, 2003) 146.
358 For the use of dactylic hexameter verse in the writings of Empedocles, see J. P. Hershbell,
“Empedocles’ Oral Style,” CJ 63 (1968) 351-357.
359 LSJ 9 , 359, s.v. grapto&j. The word derives from gra&fw (360, s.v.), whose primary meaning is “to
write,” but it means also “to paint” and “to draw.”
360 Pictures: Fortenbaugh et al., Theophrastus 417; figures: Guthrie, In the Beginning 73; animal figures:
Wright, Empedocles 282; pictured creatures: Clark, Porphyry 63; images of living things: Leonard, The
Fragments 59.
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