[598a]
But
tell me now this about the painter. Do you think that what he tries to
imitate is in each case that thing itself in nature or the works of the
craftsmen?” “The works of the craftsmen,” he
said. “Is it the reality of them or the appearance? Define that
further point.1” “What do you
mean?” he said. “This: Does a couch differ from itself
according as you view it from the side or the front or in any other way? Or
does it differ not at all in fact though it appears different, and so of
other things?” “That is the way of it,” he
said: “it appears other but differs not at all.”
1 Cf. Gorg. 488 D, Soph. 222 C.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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