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

Socrates likens the use of colors by painters to create pictures to the use of letters and
syllables by speakers, like himself and his interlocutors, to create words. His line of
thinking suggests a successive process, which, in the context of linguistics, terminates in
language and, in the context of painting, in a zw|~on. This evidence defines the singular
zw|~on as the finished product of the artistic process of painting, and establishes its direct
connection with the realm of the arts. What the passage does not clarify, however, is
whether this zw|~on refers to the object, image, or representational subject created by
means of painting. This lack of distinction between object, image, and subject is
reminiscent of the description of the zwia on the Erechtheion inscriptions. In Plato’s
passage, Socrates conceives of both language and zw|~on as great, fair, and complete. The
translation of the passage introduces a break between the reference to these qualities and
the terms “language” and zw|~on, but the ancient text shows uninterrupted speech.
Therefore, the epithet “complete” (o3lon) can also apply to zw|~on, a situation, which
strengthens the meaning of the term as the finished product of painting. Similarly, the
epithets “great” (me/ga) and “fair” (kalo_n) can also apply to zw|~on, and therefore, qualify
it as a splendid construction. Me/ga brings to mind the mega&la zw|~a in Herodotus’
description of the pyramid in Egypt. As was seen then, the word is a cognate of me/geqoj,
whose meaning in connection with the visual arts is twofold: a) literal, that is, “size,
stature,” and b) metaphorical, that is, “greatness, grandeur, and majesty.” 576 That me/ga
is applicable to both language and zw|~on—an intangible and tangible construct
respectively—suggests that the metaphorical meaning of the word is more apt here.
Kalo_n is affiliated, both etymologically and semantically, with the concept of ka&lloj,
576 Pollitt, Ancient View 199-200.
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