The Many Faces of Mimēsis THE HERITAGE OF WESTERN GREECE Series Editors Heather L. Reid, Morningside College Davide Tanasi, University of South Florida The cultural and intellectual heritage of Western Greece-the coastal areas of Southern Italy and Sicily settled by Hellenes in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE-is sometimes overlooked in academic studies. Yet evidence suggests that poets, playwrights, philosophers, and other maverick intellectuals found fertile ground here for the growth of their ideas and the harvesting of their work. The goal of this series is to explore the distinctive heritage of Western Greece from a variety of disciplinary perspectives including art history, archaeology, classical literature, drama, epigraphy, history, philosophy, and religion. Previous volumes in the series: Philosopher Kings and Tragic Heroes Edited by Heather L. Reid and Davide Tanasi 2016 ISBN 978-1942495079 Politics and Performance in Western Greece Edited by Heather L Reid, Davide Tanasi, and Susi Kimbell 2017 ISBN 978-1942495185 The Many Faces of Mimēsis: Selected Essays from the 2017 Symposium on the Hellenic Heritage of Western Greece edited by Heather L. Reid, and Jeremy C. DeLong Parnassos Press 2018 Copyright © 2018 Fonte Aretusa LLC Individual authors retain their copyright to their articles, which are printed here by permission. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author and publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal. First Printing: 2018 ISBN 978-1-942495-22-2 (paperback) ISBN: 978-1-942495-23-9 (ebook) Parnassos Press Fonte Aretusa Organization 1628 W. Willis Ave. Sioux City, Iowa 51103 www.fontearetusa.org Cover illustration: Terracotta bell-krater, Greek, South Italian, Paestan circa 360-350 BCE. Attributed to Python. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image MET DP111867.jpg. Licensed through Wikimedia Commons. Epigraph Tell them to remember Syracuse and Ortygia, which Hieron rules with his pure scepter and with good counsels, while he attends on the worship of Demeter of the red feet, and on the festival of her daughter with her white horses, and on the might of Aetnaean Zeus (Pindar, Olympian 6, 93-96) Acknowledgments The editors are grateful to all the participants of the third Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Hellenic Heritage of Southern Italy, especially Thomas Howe of Southwestern University and the Fondazione for Restoring Ancient Stabie, who delivered the keynote address. We would also like to thank Susi Kimbell and Franca Lupo of the Sicily Center for International Education www.sciecenter.org, for their help and hospitality. viii Table of Contents Introduction xi Keynote Lecture Thomas Noble Howe Bold Imitator: Greek 'Orders,' the Autodidact Polymath Architect and the Apollonion of Syracuse 1 Part I. Mimēsis in Plato's Republic Francisco J. Gonzalez The Philosophical Use of Mimēsis 23 Gene Fendt How to play the Platonic flute: Mimēsis and Truth in Republic X 37 Guilherme Domingues da Motta The Quantitative Restriction of Mimēsis in Plato's Republic 49 Jeremy DeLong Parmenides, Plato, and Mίμησις 61 Carolina Araújo Plato's Republic on Mimetic Poetry and Empathy 75 Part II. Mimēsis in Other Platonic Dialogues Marie-Élise Zovko The Divine Poet: Mimēsis and Homoiosis Theoi in Plato 89 Lidia Palumbo Mimēsis in Plato's Meno 103 Sean Driscoll Linguistic Mimēsis in Plato's Cratylus 113 Konstantinos Gkaleas The ἔθος of Ὄρχησις and Μίμησις of Virtue in Plato's Laws. 127 Part III Mimēsis in Neo-Platonism & Modern Art Anna Motta Reinterpreting Mimēsis via Neoplatonist Cosmic-Literary Theory 137 Jure Zovko Mimēsis in Plotinus's Philosophy of Art 149 Alexander H. Zistakis Imitation as Representation in Plato and His Modern Successors 159 ix Part IV. Mimēsis and Human Virtues Christos C. Evangeliou Man as the Most Mimetic Animal According to Aristotle 175 Dorota Tymura The Cynic Way of Life as Mimēsis 187 Iris Sulimani Mimēsis in Diodorus Siculus: History and Sicilian Role models 201 Elliott Domagola Mimēsis in Plato's Sophist and the Mimetic Skill of Alcibiades 215 Part V. Musical Mimēsis: Poetry, Music, Theatre, & Ritual Jonah Radding Bacchylides, Hieron, and the Imitation of Failure 233 Giulia Corrente Mousikē and Mimēsis: Aspects of Western Greek Musical Culture 249 Laura Tisi Mimesi, un esempio post-classico: il POxy 2746 265 Ewa Osek Ritual Imitation During the Thesmophoria at Syracuse 285 Argyri G. Karanasiou Imitating vs Inventing: Defining Stagecraft in Plautine Comedy 299 Part VII. Mimēsis in Material Culture Rocío Manuela Cuadra Rubio Herms: From Custodians of Boundaries to Custodians of Gardens. 319 Jorge Tomás García The Limits of Greek Painting: From Mimēsis to Abstraction 331 Aura Piccioni Mimēsis for a Cult: Western Greek Figurines of Female Dancers 345 José Miguel Puebla Morón Imitation Game? The First Mintings of Punic Sicily 365 About the Editors

xi Introduction Heather L. Reid & Jeremy C. DeLong Mimēsis is a concept that applies across disciplines to the study of ancient Greek culture. The question and function of imitation, representation, emulation, etc. are relevant to philosophy, poetry, drama, ritual, and material culture. Given its broad-ranging significance, mimēsis was chosen as the thematic topic for Fonte Artetusa's Third Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Heritage of Western Greece, held in Siracusa, Sicily in May 2017. The collection of essays that follows has been selected from the papers delivered at that conference, and it clearly demonstrates the extensive presence of mimēsis across Western Greek culture. The keynote essay by Thomas Noble Howe focuses on the Apollonion of Syracuse, which we were able to inspect up close during the conference. This 6th century BCE temple is one of the oldest examples of the Doric order, which Howe interprets, at least partly, as a mimēsis of Mycenaean and Egyptian styles by polymaths similar to Thales and Anaximander who heroically expressed their wide-ranging knowledge through architecture. Part I gathers papers on the contentious topic of mimēsis in Plato's Republic. Francisco Gonzalez begins with the perplexing but oftenoverlooked question of how Plato's own use of mimēsis is compatible with his damning critique of it. He responds by distinguishing poetic and sophistic mimēsis from the philosophical version. The distinction is based on erōs, specifically philosophers' ability to be moved by an image's inherent imperfection into desire for the ideal that lies beyond it. Philosophical mimēsis exposes its own deficiency, thereby provoking a passion for what lies beyond it. In the next essay, Gene Fendt asks why Socrates reiterates the "three removes" argument three times in Republic, and responds with an unconventional interpretation of the phutourgos as a knowing human flautist whose music expresses the beauty and order of her soul. Guilherme Motta's article examines the restriction of even noble mimēsis to only "rare" occasions in Republic. He explains the restriction in educational terms, as an effort to keep dianoia (thought) from being dominated by emotion, so that it may later be directed toward philosophical pursuits. Jeremy DeLong analyzes Plato's censorship of poetic content in Bks. II-III, especially the rules for xii portraying divine nature. After arguing that these content rules are rooted in the Eleatic tradition, specifically the work of Parmenides, he goes on to consider how this influence suggests that Plato's ensuing censorship of mimetic styles must be narrower than it initially appears. In the section's final essay, Carolina Araújo uses a modern definition of empathy to account for what Plato takes to be the proper response to mimetic poetry in Republic, one essential to political and personal flourishing. The next section deals with mimēsis in other Platonic dialogues. Marie-Élise Zovko gathers evidence from Timeaus, Symposium, Laws, and several other works to explore the relationship between mimēsis as imitation of the forms and artistic mimēsis. She concludes that human virtue, or becoming like God, requires a combination of both. Meno is the focus of Lidia Palumbo's essay, which argues that Plato explicitly uses mimēsis not only to demonstrate the process of learning through anamnēsis, but also to represent an argument to be rejected-that knowledge can be inscribed in a soul-with the geometrical example of a triangle being inscribed into a circle. Sean Driscoll examines the Cratylus's claim that names are a mimēsis of what they name. Arguing that an impoverished "copy" under-standing of mimēsis has been projected throughout Plato's works, Driscoll proposes a concept of eikastic mimēsis, which imitates not a thing's appearance, but rather its essence. Konstantinos Gkaleas's essay on dance in the Laws closes the section. Gkaleas interprets dance as the mimēsis of good warriors and citizens in Platonic education, one which uniquely combines the benefits of μουσική and γυμναστική by simultaneously training body and soul. Part III moves on to the reception of Platonic mimēsis in Neoplatonism and modern art. Anna Motta argues that mimēsis in the Neoplatonic tradition applies to the theory of a world-hierarchy in which lower realities, as a causal reflection of the higher ones, aspire to reunite with the latter. Plato emerges as an expert imitator in this context, capable of producing dialogues that represent higher realities in words. Jure Zovko continues the Neoplatonic theme, focusing on Plotinus's interpretation of Platonic mimēsis as one in which artists directly imitate a form of beauty which they find within their souls. In the third essay, Alexander Zistakis emphasizes the social and political effects of mimēsis in Plato, observing its instantiation in the modern art xiii of Cezanne, the Cubists, and the modern art philosophy of Braque, Léger, and Klee. Modern art responds to Plato's criticism of mimēsis by reinventing itself as the creative discovery of truth about itself and the world. Part IV considers the relation between mimēsis and human virtues. It begins with Christos Evangeliou's examination of Aristotle's claim in Poetics that man is the most mimetic animal. Aristotle lauds both Epic and Tragic art, praising the latter, contra Plato, for its ability to cultivate virtue. Dorota Tymura then considers a specific case of virtuous mimēsis, arguing that Antisthenes's effort to emulate Socrates's way of life gave birth to the philosophy of Cynicism. Iris Sulimani's article argues that Diodorus Siculus's universal history was motivated in part by the belief that virtue can be achieved by imitating the deeds of good characters of the past-especially those from Western Greece. Elliott Domagola concludes the section, arguing that Alcibiades's chameleonlike skill of socio-cultural mimēsis can be taken as a model for Plato's account of mimēsis in Sophist. The fifth section of the book focuses on mimēsis in poetry, music, drama and ritual. Jonah Radding opens the section by revealing how Bacchylides expands on Homer's narrative use of mimēsis in the fifth Ode to address his audience, Hieron of Syracuse, and to call into question the practical utility of its own mythical paradigm. The many connections between music and mimēsis in Western Greece is the subject of Giulia Corrente's study, which draws evidence from history, philosophy, drama, ritual, and iconography. Laura Tisi argues that the papyrus fragment POxy2746 offers a post-classical mimēsis of Aeschylus, Euripides, and a 4th century BCE Apulian krater. Ewa Osek's study of the Thesmophori festival in ancient Syracuse reveals that some of the jokes and festival behavior familiar even in today's Carnevale began as a mimēsis of ancient myths. Argyri Karanasiou's essay on Plautine comedy closes the section. She argues that Plautus's comedies are not art imitating life, but rather art imitating prior art (Hellenistic comedy), while simultaneously inventing a new art form (the Roman comoedia palliata). Part VI, which examines mimēsis in material culture, concludes this thematic collection. Rocío Manuela Cudra-Rubio outlines the various decorative and symbolic employments of small herms in private Roman contexts, showing how they draw upon Hellenic origins and usages. xiv Jorge Tomás García chronicles the innovations in artistic theory and painting techniques-especially perspectival techniques to fool the eye-developed in ancient Sikyon, and how these innovators fundamentally shifted the ideal of mimetic painting towards a fidelity of representation-an ideal which would substantially influence Renaissance art. Aura Piccioni provides a survey of figurines from Magna Graecia which appear to be mimetically representing actual female dancers-either amateurs or professionals-in various ritual/cult contexts. Finally, José Miguel Puebla Morón provides a detailed analysis of how Punic cities in Sicily (5th-3rd c. BCE) ended up imitating Greek iconography and symbolism on their official coinage. Overall, these essays demonstrate how fundamental the concept of mimēsis is for understanding Western Greek culture. Its natural pervasive presence in art, material culture, and life, led to various philosophical treatments, particularly by Plato. The philosophical legacy of the 4th c. BCE could only have increased awareness of mimēsis as a concept and practice within Greek culture, in turn generating new philosophical and artistic responses. By considering the various usages and interdisciplinary persepectives of mimēsis offered in this collection, not only can mimēsis itself be better understood, but the overall heritage of Western Greece as well.