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

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them. Consequently the Athenians wish<strong>in</strong>g to do her honour <strong>and</strong> yet unwill<strong>in</strong>g to<br />

have made a harlot famous, had a statue made <strong>of</strong> a lioness, as that was her name,<br />

<strong>and</strong> to <strong>in</strong>dicate the reason for the honour paid her <strong>in</strong>structed the artist to represent<br />

the animal as hav<strong>in</strong>g no tongue. (NH 34.72) [153]<br />

<strong>The</strong> passage clearly states that Amphicrates made a statue <strong>of</strong> a lioness for which he<br />

received laudatory comments. An animal aga<strong>in</strong> emerges as the celebrated subject <strong>of</strong> a<br />

work <strong>of</strong> art by an artist, whose name Pl<strong>in</strong>y considered worth record<strong>in</strong>g. <strong>The</strong> passage is<br />

also important for it demonstrates the commemorative <strong>and</strong> historical function <strong>of</strong> animal<br />

statues <strong>in</strong> post-Peisistratid Athens. Thus, Amphicrates’ tongue-less lioness stood as an<br />

emblem <strong>of</strong> Leaena’s silence <strong>in</strong> connection with a historical event: the Tyrannicides’<br />

assass<strong>in</strong>ation attempt aga<strong>in</strong>st Hippias <strong>in</strong> 514 B.C.<br />

A similar account <strong>of</strong> the event is provided by Pausanias, who gives a detailed<br />

description <strong>of</strong> the historical circumstances <strong>and</strong> set-up location <strong>of</strong> the statue. Unlike Pl<strong>in</strong>y,<br />

however, Pausanias does not attribute the statue to Amphicrates, but to Kalamis, that is,<br />

an early fifth-century sculptor:<br />

When Hipparchos [the son <strong>of</strong> Peisistratos] died—<strong>and</strong> what I am say<strong>in</strong>g has never<br />

before come to be written down but is generally believed by many Athenians—<br />

Hippias tortured <strong>and</strong> killed [an Athenian woman named] Leaena [“Lioness”],<br />

know<strong>in</strong>g that she was the mistress <strong>of</strong> Aristogeiton <strong>and</strong> believ<strong>in</strong>g that there was no<br />

way <strong>in</strong> which she could have been ignorant <strong>of</strong> the plot. In reaction to this, when<br />

the tyranny <strong>of</strong> the Peisistratids came to an end, the Athenians set up a bronze<br />

lioness as a memorial to the woman, next to the image <strong>of</strong> Aphrodite, which they<br />

say, was a dedication <strong>of</strong> Kallias <strong>and</strong> a work <strong>of</strong> Kalamis. (1.23.2) [135]<br />

Further evidence directly connect<strong>in</strong>g animal subjects to renowned artists is found<br />

<strong>in</strong> the case <strong>of</strong> Strongylion, another <strong>Classical</strong> sculptor, whose fame Pausanias associates<br />

with statues <strong>of</strong> cattle <strong>and</strong> horses. Pausanias conveys this association while view<strong>in</strong>g some<br />

statues <strong>of</strong> the Muses made by this artist <strong>and</strong> placed along the road to the grove <strong>of</strong> the<br />

Muses on mount Helicon:<br />

25

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