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

kaq' au(to_ ei]nai…qew&rhma), and, at the same time, as “an image of something else”
(fa&ntasma& e0stin, h| { d' a1llou) that serves as aid to memory (mnhmo&neuma). When
transferred to the context of the arts, these two different ontological statuses correspond
to the two different ways that a painted or drawn picture/image (gegramme/non) could be
perceived: as a zw|~on and ei0kw&n. Simply put, this correspondence suggests that zw|~on
was, for Aristotle, “an object of speculation in its own right” and ei0kw&n, “an image of
something else.” Hett translates ei0kw&n as “portrait,” which implies a human subject.
Sachs, on the contrary, translates it as “likeness” and explains that: “a ‘likeness’ (ei0kw&n)
means not any and every thing that resembles something else (o(moi/wma), but something
derivative that imitates or represents the “original.” 622 In agreement with Hett is also
Thomas Aquinas, whose commentary on the passage suggests that he, too, understood
ei0kw&n as “likeness.” 623 Additional evidence that supports this meaning derives from his
statement that ei0kw&n stood for or represented something or someone perceived
previously, but out of sight now. This belief is exemplified in Aristotle’s reference to the
contemplation of an ei0ko&na of someone called Coriscus, which he defines as an image
representing this person, and therefore, functioning as a reminder of this person’s
existence to the viewer. Although not identical, this line of thought is very close to that
of Plato, who, as seen earlier, thought of a)ga&lmata as substitutes of the presence of
gods. Aristotle’s passage states, however, that the image held in memory (fa&ntasma)
maintained and exhibited these qualities of ei0kw&n, but it was also a zw|~on.
As noted above, Aristotle provides an explicit definition of this term as “an object
of speculation in its own right,” thus, not in relation to something else, or a fa&ntasma,
622 Sachs, Aristotle’s On the Soul and On Memory and Recollection 171, n. 4, where he refers to specific
passages, such as Plato’s Sophist (240b-240c), which carries this meaning.
623 White and Macierowski, St. Thomas Aquinas. Commentaries 202, n. 18.
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