MIMESI. - From μίμησις, it means imitation. It is a concept upon which, probably already in the most ancient historical cultures, the interpretation and rationale of cultic rites and religious prescriptions were based.
In Greek thought the concept of m. was differentiated and further defined in its cosmological-metaphysical, moral, and religious applications. Plato defines worldly things as imitations (μίμησις, εἰκόνες) of invisible realities, ultimately of the idea of the good (Tim., 38 a, 48 e). The analogous definition of the moral virtues as imitation of God (Theaet., 176) is closely connected with this cosmological doctrine. In Stoicism, alongside the more characteristic conception of ἀκολώθειαις, the idea of imitation of God or of divinized nature is taken up again (Cicerone, Tusc., V, 70; Seneca, De ira, II, 16 and Epist., 95, 50). The concept reappears in Christianity, where, however, the imitation of God in spiritual life is grounded in the inward assimilation to the divine nature effected by Grace.