8. The drift of these last nine words is not very clear. I take Aristotle to mean that indications of character can be most effectively conveyed by a sculpture or painting when it is a representation of someone under the influence of emotion.

9. Artists of the fifth century, of whom Aristotle remarks in the Poetics (1448a5) that Polygnotus portrayed men as better than they are, whereas Pauson portrayed them as worse.

10. Literally, ‘excellent statements of those who have philosophized on…’: cf. VII xi, n. 7. On the ‘modes’ (harmoniai), see introduction to VIII vii.