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

preposition e0n, whose meaning shows a preoccupation with location, into words intended
to convey both where and how zw|~a were produced. Therefore, in a similar way that
zw|~a were images painted into the surface of clothes, they were also images carved into
the surface of stones. On the basis of this evidence, the use of e0gglu&yai in this passage
may be seen as indicative of relief sculpture. A proponent of this idea is Alan Lloyd,
who states broadly that e0gglu&yai should be seen here as a clear indication of relief
work. 395
Additional evidence pointing to the direction of relief sculpture may also derive
from the prepositional phrase e0n li/qoisi. As seen above, the traditional English
translation of this phrase is “on stone,” but as pointed out, its literal meaning is “in
stones.” The phrase acquires additional importance in view of the observation that “as
adverbial locative particles, the prepositions are frequently joined to the oblique cases
[i.e., genitive, dative, accusative] in order to bring out more clearly, and define more
plainly, their local meaning.” 396 In view of this evidence, Herodotus’ e0n li/qoisi, the
latter word being the dative plural of li/qoj (“stone”), suggests that zw|~a were images of
some kind literally carved in stones, therefore not parted from them, as if not separated
from the matrix; in concrete terms, that zw|~a were images of some kind carved in relief.
This line of thinking gains additional value when seen that Herodotus actually
distinguishes zw|~a from, and therefore, contrasts them with a)ga&lmata. In view of this
contrast, a)ga&lmata, which were seen to indicate statues in general, may now be seen to
stand for freestanding statuary in specific.
395 A. B. Lloyd, Herodotus Book II. Commentary 1-98 II (Leiden, 1976) 32-33.
396 Kaegi, Kaegi’s Greek Grammar 123.
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