Abstract In hisImagines, Philostratus the Elder stages a scintillating play with several levels of representation and suggests that his verbal account can give the reader access to the pictures described and even the scenes depicted in the pictures. But does Philostratus actually immerse us in the paintings? This is a claim often made by scholars; however, an embodied and enactive analysis of...
Abstract The vividness of Homeric poetry has been admired since antiquity, but has been difficult to pin down with precision. It is usually thought to come about because readers are prompted to visualize the storyworld in the form of mental images seen with the mind's eye. But this cannot be right, both because there are serious scientific problems with the concept of ‘pictures in the head’ and...
During a consultation at Delphi, one of Apollo's servants imagined, heard, intuited, or feigned Apollo's presence and then uttered Apollo's divine response to the human client who made inquiry of the god. Such inspired mimicry appears incomprehensible to the non-believing distant observer to whom Apollo no longer speaks. Scholars hear nothing at Delphi and, steadfast in their faith in...