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

the meaning of zw|~on in the fifth century. As stated above, zw|&oisi stand for painted and
perhaps drawn images of some kind rather than animals. A digression to the various
translations, however, provides the opportunity to emphasize how modern definitions,
when applied to zw|&oisi, may complicate rather than assist in deciphering its ancient
meaning. The situation starts to become thorny, for example, when seen that some of the
modern terms that have been applied to zw|&oisi do not hold a single meaning but rather
numerous nuanced ones. The primary meaning of “picture,” for example, is that of “an
image or likeness of an object, person or scene produced on a flat surface, especially by
painting, drawing, or photography.” 361 This meaning seems appropriate for zw|&oisi
considering that the latter is defined in the ancient text as graptoi=j (“painted” or
“drawn”). But the modern term “picture” carries also the meanings of “perfect likeness,”
“anything closely resembling or strikingly typifying something else,” and also “anything
regarded as having the compositional beauty of a painting or a drawing.” 362 Faced with
these nuances of meaning it is difficult to determine which, if any, of them the translator
of zw|&oisi had in mind when deciding on “pictures.”
A similar situation is also detected in the correspondence of zw|&oisi to “figures.”
For a modern audience, and in the context of the visual arts, the term “figure” refers to
the representation of a bodily form, especially the human one. 363 Current discussions of
visual art, however, indicate that “figure” is also used for the description of the bodily
361
D. B. Guralnik, ed., Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language (New York, 1970;
second ed., 1980) 1077, s.v. picture.
362
Guralnik, Webster’s New World Dictionary 1077, s.v. picture.
363
R. Mayer, ed., The Harper Collins Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques (New York, 1969; second
ed., 1991) 151, s.v. figure; K. Reynolds and R. Seddon, eds., Illustrated Dictionary of Art Terms. A
Handbook for the Artist and Art Lover (New York, 1984) 68, s.v. figure; also P. B. Gove, ed., Webster’s
Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged (Springfield, Mass., 1961; repr.
1986) 848, s.v. figure.
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