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

mistaken a bronze cow for a real one, and seemingly for a mature one from which it can
suckle. This evidence heightens the sense of aliveness conveyed by the statue; it shows
that animals were subjects of lifelike art, while portraying animals, along with the gadfly,
as trustworthy judges of the lifelikeness of art, in particular animal sculpture. In addition,
the fact that the viewer is a calf, that is, a young animal, which perceives the statue of a
mature fellow animal as living, brings immediately to mind Plato’s earlier remark that
children were among those individuals easily deceived by the lifelikeness of art.
In the second epigram, an anonymous, (and already discussed for its reference to
the statue as a cow), the poet addresses the viewer directly:
Stranger, it was Myron who moulded this cow, on
which this calf fawns as if it were alive, taking it for
its mother. (Anonymous, Anth. Pal. 9.733) [24]
In the epigram, the poet addresses an unidentified viewer. He notes the response of a calf
to the statue as if it were a living animal explicitly identified here as a cow. The viewer is
further told that the calf was deceived into thinking of the statue as its own mother. The
reader is made aware that this is a work of art.
In the third epigram, also anonymous, the poet addresses Myron directly:
A calf died beside thy heifer, Myron, deceived
into thinking that the bronze had milk inside.
(Anonymous, Anth. Pal. 9.735) [25]
The poet identifies Myron’s statue as that of a heifer. He establishes the deceptive power
of the statue over the calf, by stating that the latter died beside the former. Again, the
reader is made aware that this is a work of art.
In all three epigrams, an animal identified as a calf mistakes a lifeless cow for a
real one, thus establishing the exceptional lifelikeness of the statue. This evidence
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