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

further reinforced by Athenaeus’ suggestion that his understanding of Philemon’s
zw|&ou as an a1galma stems from the designation of this zw|&ou, in the 0Agalmatopoioi&
( @Agalma-Makers) of Adaeus of Mytilene (perhaps, third-century B.C.), as a work of
Ctesicles (perhaps, third-century B.C.). 626 These references aside, what is intriguing
about Philemon’s zw|&ou, and despite its anecdotal nature, is that it marks a specific
perception of and reaction to an artistic image at the end of the Classical period in
Greece. As the fragment states: “a certain man fell in love with a stone zw|&ou; thereupon
he locked himself in the temple.” This statement presents zw|~on as a sculptural image
that had the power to elicit an emotional response on the viewer and, in turn, condition
the viewer’s behavior towards it. In this way, the statement is instructive in explaining
the impact of an artistic image on the viewer as depending upon the interaction between
this image and the viewer. 627 That this zw|~on was made of stone suggests a lifeless
image, which accords with Plato’s and Alcidamas’s perception of zw|~a as representations
626 The date of Adaeus of Mytilene is uncertain. Additional evidence about him derives from a sepulchral
epigram of the Greek Anthology (7.305), which is inscribed “of Addaeus of Mytilene” and refers to the
death of a fisherman. Athenaeus (11.471f) refers also to an Adaeus as the author of a work called On the
Use of Words. Another epigram of the Greek Anthology (9. 228) is entitled “of Addaeus of Macedonia”
and refers to a deceased called Alcon. There is also a considerable number of epigrams which have been
attributed to Adaeus (7.51, 7.694) and Addaeus (6.258, 7.51, 7.238, 7.240, 9.300, 9.303, 9.544, and 10.20).
Some of these refer to the death of Euripides in the Macedonian locality of Arethusa (i.e., Adaeus, 7.51), to
Philip of Macedonia and the city of Aegae (i.e., Addaeus, 7.238), to the tomb of Alexander the Great
(Addaeus, 7.240), and also the city of Potidaea (i.e., Adaeus, 7.694). On the basis of these references, it has
been suggested that the names Ad(d)aeus and Adaeus of Macedon referred to the same epigrammatic poet,
who was, most likely from Macedonia, and lived during the time of Alexander the Great (W. Smith, ed.,
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology I (Boston, 1870) 18; also
http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0027.html. Whether this Macedonian Ad(d)aeus and Ad(d)eus of
Mytilene were one and the same person cannot be established. As for Ctesicles, Pollitt, Sources and
Documents 177, n. 2, notes that a Hellenistic painter called Ctesilas or Ctesicles is mentioned by Pliny (NH
35.140), but “the reading of this name in the manuscripts is uncertain.” He translates (177) the passage of
Pliny as following: “Ktesilas became famous because of his insult to Queen Stratonike, for since he was
denied honor by her, he painted a picture of her rolling about with a fisherman, with whom rumor said that
she was in love. He put his picture on view in the port of Ephesos and made a hurried escape by ship. But
the Queen, [feeling that] the likeness of both figures was marvelously expressed, forbade that the picture be
taken down.”
627 For a concise discussion of the active role of the viewer in defining various modes of viewing and
understanding works of art, see Rusnak, “The Active Spectator” esp. 1-27.
326