Mimesis, painting and poetry in Aristotles Poetics

Abstract

This article seeks to understand the concept of mimesis in Aristotle's Poetics. Therefore, and due to the philosopher does not define it, try to draw a general picture of the concept of imitation (mimesis) in some authors of the fifth century BC, ie, previous authors to Plato and Aristotle. Both these authors as cited in the two philosophers, cognates of mimesis unaware of a specific field of application, moreover, have meanings - simulate and emulate - which sometimes identify themselves and sometimes contradict each other. Despite this ambivalence of mimesis and cognates, authors in the fifth century BC, and even Aristotle, in the Poetics the example of painting best elucidates the meaning of mimesis and cognates in context of mimetikai technai (mimetic arts).