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

and the man leading it, and the woman following, and this hook-nosed
man and the one with his hair sticking up, don’t they all have the look of
life and day? If I don’t think I was acting too boldly for a woman, I
should have cried out, in case the ox might do some harm: he glances
sideways so, Kynno with the one eye.
KYNNO. Yes, Phile, the hands of the Ephesian Apelles are truthful in
every line, nor would you say ‘That man looked at one thing but rejected
another,’ but whatever came into his mind he was quick and eager to
attempt; and anyone who has looked on him or his works without just
excitement ought to hang by the foot in the fuller’s house.
(Herodas, Mime 4, 56-78) [96]
Like the ordinary viewers of Myron’s cow, the women in Herodas Mime view the painted
image of an ox, among others, as if it were alive, while they are aware of the fact that
they are looking at art. The reality of the image is evidenced in Phile’s question to
Kynno: “don’t they have all the look of life and day?” The perceived aliveness of the ox
is contained in Phile’s interpretation of its glance sideways, which she interprets as a
harbinger of a potentially harmful action on the side of the animal. Of particular interest
is also her reference to the specific emotional reaction that such a glance could have
elicited from her: “If I did not think I was acting too boldly for a woman, I should have
cried out, in case the ox might do some harm: he glances sideways so, Kynno with the
one eye.” This statement indicates that, when employed as representational subjects,
animals turned lifelikeness into a quality of art that allowed the viewer to dissolve the
boundary between reality and image, a characteristic also seen earlier, and to also form an
emotional response to art. Animal images, therefore, show that artistic lifelikeness was
evaluated on the basis of the emotions it elicited from viewers. In this case, what keeps
Phile from crying out loud, when looking at the ox, is the belief that this is inappropriate
behavior for a woman, but otherwise a normal mode of responding to lifelike art.
Although not referring to animals, the capacity of lifelike art to trigger an emotional
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