Classificazione e modelli culturali nei lapidari greci e romani

This article investigates the strategy of classification that the ancients employ to describe the mineral world. In order to explain the extraordinary identity of the stones, their name, their birth and properties, is not enough the identification with real mineral referents. The classification is based on a metaphorical relationship between the stones and other entities (animals, plants, divinities and so on). This association mobilizes multiple fields of ancient knowledge, from botany to zoology, from magic to myth. Thus, we have to assume an emic perspective, in order to understand the categorization. I will try to exemplify these reflections taking into consideration the stones the lapidaries connect to winged creatures.