Exempla of δίδαξις in the animal world: the ἀράχνη’s case

Abstract

In the human history, the importance of the animal as a cultural object was not so inferior to the animal stricto sensu. The animal is “very good” to be studied, not only for the complex interactions engaged with the human world, but also for its importance as a figure of the imagination in the cultural traditions of the ancient and modern societies. After Aristotle the zoology, as was said previously, turns into ethology: the return of the animal to its archaic and symbolic functions, could explain the reason of complexity of the Plutarch’s scientific works, based on different competences: zoological, scientific, anecdotal, but also rhetorical and philosophical. The analysis of the virtues attributed to the animal world from Cheronese reveals that they are often described to commovere the public. There are many observations about the use and re-use of the zoological repertoire in Plutarch. The semantic polyvalence of the animal is irrefutable in Plutarch: the animal can be the object of pseudo-scientific studies; may be a symbol, a metaphor, a similitude, the instrumentum used to refute the ideas and to persuade the reader.