the dash and breaking of water in rivers or seas, with other natural phenomena. It was customary, likewise, as in modern times, to introduce boats and galleys rowed along the mimic waters of the stage, an example of which occurs on an Etruscan Chalcidone, where we behold a little vessel of extraordinary form, with a mariner at bow and stern, paddled along a bank adorned with flowers, while on a platform, occupying the boat’s waist, two naked dancers are exhibiting their saltatorial powers.[954] ----- Footnote 949: Plut. An. Seni. § 3. Footnote 950: Plut. Ages. § 21. Footnote 951: Etym. Mag. 607. 25. Footnote 952: Acharn. 834. Footnote 953: Plut. de Aud. Poet. § 3. Plat. de Rep. t. vi. pp. 125–127. This philosopher, it is clear, entertained a less elevated idea of art than some modern writers, who define it as follows: “Art is a representation (μίμησις), i. e. an energy by means of which a subject becomes an object,”—(Müller, cited by Mr. Donaldson, Theatre of the Greeks, p. 4,)—in other words, by which a nominative becomes an accusative. Footnote 954: Mus. Cortonens. tab. 60. ----- Very singular figures were also introduced upon the stage, as wasps, frogs, and birds, of sufficiently large dimensions to be enacted by men; and still stranger personages occasionally made their appearance, as where, in a kind of practical parody of the story of Andromeda,[955] a whale emerges on the sea beach to snap off an old woman. In another drama the transformation of Argos was represented, after which this luckless male duenna strutted like a peacock before the audience. Io, moreover, was changed into a cow, and Euippe, in Euripides, into a mare. What there was peculiar in the appearance of Amymone it is not easy to conjecture; but she was, possibly, represented in the act of withdrawing the trident of Poseidon from the rock, from which gushed forth three fountains. The rivers, and mountains, and cities introduced[956] were, doubtless, personifications, such as we still find in many works of art. The giants were simply, in all probability, huge figures of men, made to stalk about the stage, like elephants, with an actor in each leg; and the Indians, Tritons, Gorgons, Centaurs, with other personages of terrible or fantastic aspect, owed their existence, perhaps, to masks, if we may so speak, representing the whole figures. ----- Footnote 955: Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 548. Footnote 956: See the figure of Alexandria in the Gemme Antiche Figurate of Agostini. -----