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

disqualifies him from judging if they are executed correctly. The word memimhme/nwn is
the perfect participle of the verb mime&omai, which is connected to mi/mhsij (mimesis), a
term which, as noted above, is critical to the Classical Greek, particularly Platonic, view
of “representation” in the arts. Liddell and Scott translate this memimhme/nwn as “artistic
representations.” 598 Considering that the Athenian speaks of “each of the bodies
(swma&twn) of the memimhme/nwn,” then, the latter phrase should be understood as each of
the bodies of subjects that have been represented in works of art. Swma&twn is the
genitive plural of sw~ma, a word that Liddell and Scott consider to be Plato’s usual term
for the body of a human being or animal. 599 If this observation is correct, then the above
memimhme/nwn should be understood as artistic representations of the bodies of human
beings and/or animals. Also in the Cratylus (400a-400c), Plato perceives of the soul as a
power which, when present in the body, “causes it to live and gives it the power to
breathe the air and be revitalized” (400a); thus, the body is “an enclosure or prison in
which the soul is securely kept” (400c). 600 This remark is important, for it implies that
for Plato representations of bodies were most likely deprived of life and animation.
To be able to judge artistic representations effectively one needs to be familiar
with specific aspects of their composition and appearance. To the Athenian, these
aspects correspond to “numbers” (a)riqmou&j), and “arrangement” (ta&cin), “colors”
(xrw&mata), and “shapes, designs, or forms” (sxh&mata). These elements belong to both
the original and the representation. Not surprisingly, these are all terms that feature
598 LSJ 9 , 1134, s.v. mime&omai.
599 LSJ 9 , 1749, s.v. sw~ma, suggest that Plato uses the word to refer to the body of a man (Resp. 469d) or
animal (Resp. 564a), as opposed to Herodotus, who uses it for “plant” and also “living body” (1.139).
600 Translations: Reeve, Plato. Cratylus 30 and 31, respectively.
306