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

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uild<strong>in</strong>g, <strong>and</strong> also marked a technical aspect <strong>of</strong> them, namely, their fasten<strong>in</strong>g to the<br />

background blocks <strong>of</strong> the frieze by means <strong>of</strong> iron dowels fixed <strong>in</strong> place with lead. <strong>The</strong><br />

extant sculpture attests, first, to this unusual method <strong>of</strong> attachment for the sculptured<br />

pieces <strong>of</strong> the frieze, <strong>and</strong>, second, to the variety <strong>of</strong> both animate <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong>animate subjects<br />

represented by these pieces. <strong>The</strong> translations <strong>of</strong> both zw~ia <strong>and</strong> zw&idia as “figures” <strong>and</strong><br />

“pictures” <strong>in</strong>dicate how entrenched these latter terms are <strong>in</strong> our descriptive vocabulary <strong>of</strong><br />

ancient works <strong>of</strong> art; it should be remembered, however, that such translations do not<br />

capture accurately the mean<strong>in</strong>g that these terms carried when used <strong>in</strong> fifth-century<br />

contexts directly <strong>in</strong>volved with the visual arts.<br />

Taken together, the evidence from the literary texts <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong>scriptions <strong>of</strong> the fifth<br />

century B.C. <strong>in</strong>dicates that the word zw|~on <strong>and</strong> its derivative zw|&dion when used <strong>in</strong> direct<br />

association with the visual arts as def<strong>in</strong>ed by pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g sculpture, bronze-work, <strong>and</strong> textiles<br />

held the mean<strong>in</strong>gs <strong>of</strong> “image,” “subject <strong>of</strong> representation” “representation <strong>of</strong> both<br />

animate <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong>animate subjects taken from real life,” <strong>and</strong> “decorative element.” <strong>The</strong><br />

fifth-century use <strong>of</strong> zw|~on <strong>in</strong>dicates that no importance was placed on the dist<strong>in</strong>ction<br />

between image <strong>and</strong> subject <strong>in</strong> contemporary <strong>Greece</strong>, while that <strong>of</strong> zw|&dion po<strong>in</strong>ts out that<br />

this was a term closely associated with the method <strong>of</strong> fasten<strong>in</strong>g images to a background<br />

as part <strong>of</strong> creat<strong>in</strong>g works <strong>of</strong> art <strong>in</strong> various media, such as bronze-work <strong>and</strong> sculpture.<br />

Contrary to the idea that fifth-century arguments about images <strong>in</strong> <strong>Greece</strong> are scarce, the<br />

usage <strong>of</strong> the word <strong>in</strong> the literary texts <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong>scriptions exam<strong>in</strong>ed here <strong>in</strong>dicates that there<br />

was a dist<strong>in</strong>ct vocabulary about the visual arts <strong>in</strong> fifth-century <strong>Greece</strong>. 575<br />

575 For a discussion <strong>of</strong> the idea that “evidence for fifth-century arguments about images is scarce,” see<br />

Halliwell, “Plato <strong>and</strong> Pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g,” <strong>in</strong> Rutter <strong>and</strong> Sparkes, eds., Word <strong>and</strong> Image <strong>in</strong> Ancient <strong>Greece</strong> 100.<br />

293

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