Mention of the wonder a work of art arouses regularly recurs in ancient literature, as the frequent expression of an aesthetic judgment. But as the representation of wonder in Greek literature generally develops down two paths that bear on the appropriateness of this emotion, on a “proper usage” of thaumazein, between astonishment as a vehicle of inquiry, and blind stupidity, the evaluation of aesthetic wonder is equally twofold: wonder at art's representational power is either considered as the completely reliable access to another world, which presents itself with all the characteristics of a living reality and incites a constantly renewed visual pleasure, or it is perceived as a lure, a snare for a suspicious mind.