Home Classical, Ancient Near Eastern & Egyptian Studies Learning from Illusion: Myron’s Heifer and the Stoic Poetics of Ekphrasis
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Learning from Illusion: Myron’s Heifer and the Stoic Poetics of Ekphrasis

  • Alessandro Stavru
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill
Explore this Subject How to publish with us
The Poetics of Greek Ekphrasis
This chapter is in the book The Poetics of Greek Ekphrasis

Abstract

The paper is divided in three parts. In the first part, I deal with the Stoic notion of synkatathesis, that is, the “assent” by virtue of which certain sense-perceptions are classified by the intellect (hêgemonikon) as ‘correct’, others as ‘false’. In the second part, I show how synkatathesis works in the famous ekphrasis of Zeno’s hand. In the third part, I relate the Stoic theory of perception to the extant corpus of epigrams on Myron’s heifer (dating back from the 3rd century BCE to the Renaissance). A close analysis of the epigrams reveals that they do not limit themselves to vivid descriptions of the heifer; on the contrary, they show how a viewer should behave when confronted with perceptions that lead to perceptual errors due to the fact that they are vivid but illusory. In such cases, only a Stoic synkatathesis can help gaining a perceptual attitude that is free from errors.

Abstract

The paper is divided in three parts. In the first part, I deal with the Stoic notion of synkatathesis, that is, the “assent” by virtue of which certain sense-perceptions are classified by the intellect (hêgemonikon) as ‘correct’, others as ‘false’. In the second part, I show how synkatathesis works in the famous ekphrasis of Zeno’s hand. In the third part, I relate the Stoic theory of perception to the extant corpus of epigrams on Myron’s heifer (dating back from the 3rd century BCE to the Renaissance). A close analysis of the epigrams reveals that they do not limit themselves to vivid descriptions of the heifer; on the contrary, they show how a viewer should behave when confronted with perceptions that lead to perceptual errors due to the fact that they are vivid but illusory. In such cases, only a Stoic synkatathesis can help gaining a perceptual attitude that is free from errors.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Foreword V
  3. Contents VII
  4. List of Figures IX
  5. List of Abbreviations
  6. Introduction 1
  7. Part I: Ekphrasis and Hellenistic Poetics
  8. Poets’ Signatures and Ekphrasis in Inscribed Greek Epigrams 15
  9. Leonidas of Tarentum and Hellenistic Ekphrasis 45
  10. Pictures in Motion: Descriptive Performance in Hellenistic carmina figurata 69
  11. Aratus’ Ekphrastic Skies: Between the Dragon and the Stars Without Name 89
  12. Part II: Ekphrastic Visualization In and Out of the Mind
  13. The Lover is the Perfect Artist: Praxiteles and the Cnidian Aphrodite in Greek Ekphrastic Epigram 117
  14. Imagined Spaces, Imagined Buildings, and the Idea of Architectural Representation: Phantasia in the Wall Paintings of the 2nd Style in Rome and the Vesuvian Cities 141
  15. A Library of Memory in a Ptolemaic Reading Primer (P. Cairo J.E. 65445) 193
  16. Learning from Illusion: Myron’s Heifer and the Stoic Poetics of Ekphrasis 217
  17. Can You Feel It? Ekphrasis and Mind-Reading in Hellenistic Epigram 255
  18. Part III: Developments in Late Antique Ekphrasis
  19. Patchwork Voices: Poetics and Aesthetics of Ekphrasis in Ancient Greek Cento-Poetry 275
  20. Exegete or Ecstatic Visionary? On the Self-Fashioning of the Poet in the Ekphrasis tabulae mundi of John of Gaza 289
  21. Ekphrastic poikilia in Triphiodorus’ Sack of Troy: Towards a Late Antique Poetics of Similarity 313
  22. A Guided Tour through a Poetic Collection of Statues: Observations on Christodorus of Coptus’ Ekphrastic Practice 339
  23. List of Contributors 361
  24. Index Nominum
  25. Index Rerum
  26. Index Locorum
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783112207697-009

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Foreword V
  3. Contents VII
  4. List of Figures IX
  5. List of Abbreviations
  6. Introduction 1
  7. Part I: Ekphrasis and Hellenistic Poetics
  8. Poets’ Signatures and Ekphrasis in Inscribed Greek Epigrams 15
  9. Leonidas of Tarentum and Hellenistic Ekphrasis 45
  10. Pictures in Motion: Descriptive Performance in Hellenistic carmina figurata 69
  11. Aratus’ Ekphrastic Skies: Between the Dragon and the Stars Without Name 89
  12. Part II: Ekphrastic Visualization In and Out of the Mind
  13. The Lover is the Perfect Artist: Praxiteles and the Cnidian Aphrodite in Greek Ekphrastic Epigram 117
  14. Imagined Spaces, Imagined Buildings, and the Idea of Architectural Representation: Phantasia in the Wall Paintings of the 2nd Style in Rome and the Vesuvian Cities 141
  15. A Library of Memory in a Ptolemaic Reading Primer (P. Cairo J.E. 65445) 193
  16. Learning from Illusion: Myron’s Heifer and the Stoic Poetics of Ekphrasis 217
  17. Can You Feel It? Ekphrasis and Mind-Reading in Hellenistic Epigram 255
  18. Part III: Developments in Late Antique Ekphrasis
  19. Patchwork Voices: Poetics and Aesthetics of Ekphrasis in Ancient Greek Cento-Poetry 275
  20. Exegete or Ecstatic Visionary? On the Self-Fashioning of the Poet in the Ekphrasis tabulae mundi of John of Gaza 289
  21. Ekphrastic poikilia in Triphiodorus’ Sack of Troy: Towards a Late Antique Poetics of Similarity 313
  22. A Guided Tour through a Poetic Collection of Statues: Observations on Christodorus of Coptus’ Ekphrastic Practice 339
  23. List of Contributors 361
  24. Index Nominum
  25. Index Rerum
  26. Index Locorum
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2026 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 8.1.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783112207697-009/html
Scroll to top button