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

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ATHENIAN. That’s no h<strong>in</strong>drance for you. We’ll still make use <strong>of</strong> this allusion<br />

to it that’s cropped up <strong>in</strong> our discussion now, <strong>in</strong> someth<strong>in</strong>g like the follow<strong>in</strong>g<br />

way: suppose someone once took it <strong>in</strong>to his head to pa<strong>in</strong>t (gra&yai) the most<br />

ka&lliston zw|~on possible, one that would never get worse but would always<br />

improve as time went by. Don’t you see that s<strong>in</strong>ce he’s mortal, he’ll have to leave<br />

beh<strong>in</strong>d a successor, able to make it right if the zw|~on suffers from decay at the<br />

h<strong>and</strong>s <strong>of</strong> time, as well as to make future touch-ups that improve the deficiencies<br />

left by his own artistic weaknesses? Otherwise, won’t his very great labor last but<br />

a brief time?<br />

KLEINIAS. That’s true.<br />

ATHENIAN. Well, then, don’t you th<strong>in</strong>k the lawgiver has such a purpose? He<br />

first writes (gra&yai) his laws with as nearly adequate a precision as he can<br />

muster. <strong>The</strong>n, with the passage <strong>of</strong> time, as his op<strong>in</strong>ions are tried out <strong>in</strong> deed, do<br />

you suppose there’s any lawgiver who is so imprudent as to be ignorant <strong>of</strong> the fact<br />

that he must necessarily have left very many such th<strong>in</strong>gs that require be<strong>in</strong>g set<br />

right by some follower, if the regime <strong>and</strong> order <strong>of</strong> the city he has founded are<br />

always to become <strong>in</strong> no way worse but <strong>in</strong>stead better? (Leg. 769a-769d) [145]<br />

In this dialogue, the prom<strong>in</strong>ence <strong>of</strong> pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g is strik<strong>in</strong>g. Plato uses three different terms:<br />

zwgra&fwn (“pa<strong>in</strong>ters”), gra&yai (“pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g”), <strong>and</strong> gegramme/na (“pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>gs”) all <strong>of</strong><br />

which br<strong>in</strong>g to m<strong>in</strong>d the previous connection between gra&fw <strong>and</strong> pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g, <strong>and</strong><br />

therefore, establish firmly the context <strong>of</strong> this artistic process. Additional support for this<br />

context derives also from the terms xrai/ne<strong>in</strong> <strong>and</strong> a)poxrai/ne<strong>in</strong>. Although their exact<br />

mean<strong>in</strong>g rema<strong>in</strong>s elusive, the suggestions <strong>of</strong> “touch<strong>in</strong>g-up” <strong>and</strong> “highlight<strong>in</strong>g,” as <strong>in</strong> the<br />

above translation, <strong>and</strong> also “color<strong>in</strong>g” <strong>and</strong> “shad<strong>in</strong>g,” show preoccupation with certa<strong>in</strong><br />

technical aspects <strong>of</strong> pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g; as such, these terms enhance the connection with the<br />

technical vocabulary <strong>of</strong> the arts. 604 With<strong>in</strong> this context, the word zw|~on occurs three<br />

times. <strong>The</strong> first time, the term appears <strong>in</strong> its genitive plural form—zw|&wn. <strong>The</strong> Athenian<br />

states that pa<strong>in</strong>ters never f<strong>in</strong>ish work<strong>in</strong>g on each <strong>of</strong> the zw|~a. Like the good <strong>and</strong> bad<br />

works (zw|~a) <strong>of</strong> pa<strong>in</strong>ters <strong>in</strong> the Cratylus, these zw|&wn st<strong>and</strong> for the works <strong>of</strong> pa<strong>in</strong>ters <strong>in</strong><br />

604 For this suggestion <strong>and</strong> a discussion <strong>of</strong> the mean<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> these terms <strong>and</strong> their translations as “color<strong>in</strong>g”<br />

<strong>and</strong> “shad<strong>in</strong>g,” see Keuls, Plato <strong>and</strong> Greek Pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g 115-117.<br />

310

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