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

zw~ia. The first of these fragments (XIII, col. II; IG I 3 . 476), whose text is restored,
records payments
for taking down and carrying away the scaffolding
from the north wall, from which
the zw&idia were fastened in place,
to six men; to Prepon, 3 ob.; to Medos, 3 ob.;
to Apollodoros, 3 ob.; to - - -, 3 ob.;
to - - -, 3 ob.; - - - - - -
(IG I 3 . 476 [fr. XIII, col II, 135-140]) [89]
The operation recorded in this inscription refers to the removing of the scaffolding used
for the placement of zw&idia on the north wall of a building, which has been identified
with the Erechtheion. 566 Caskey translates zw&idia, which is restored except for its first
letter, as “figures of the frieze.” 567 As noted earlier in connection with Herodotus’ krater,
zw&idia is considered to be the diminutive of zw|~on. 568 On the basis of this observation,
Caskey’s translation of zw&idia should read “little figures,” but as can be seen, he omits
the association with size. Anastasios Orlandos and John Travlos, in contrast, include this
inscription in their discussion of the word zw|&dion, which they consider the diminutive
form of zw|~on; their translation of zw|&dion, however, favors a completely different
definition, that of “a small painted or sculptured picture.” 569 There is nothing in the
inscription under discussion, however, to support the idea that these zw&idia referred to
small painted or sculptured pictures or even figures. The inscription makes use of the
plural form of the word, which indicates more than one item, but does not describe what
these zw&idia looked like. In this respect, zw&idia appears to be a term of general
566
Caskey, “The Inscriptions,” in Paton, ed., The Erechtheum 416.
567
Caskey, “The inscriptions,” in Paton, ed., The Erechtheum 387, 413.
568 9
LSJ , 758, s.v. zw|&dion; also for –idion as a standard suffix of neuter diminutives, see Smyth, Greek
Grammar 235.
569
A. K. Orlandos and J. N. Travlos, Dictionary of Ancient Architectural Terms (Athens, 1986) 123, s.v.
zw|&dion.
288