De odoribus
Theophrastus
Theophrastus, Concerning Odours, Hort, Harvard, 1927
II. Ἔχει δὲ ἕκαστον ὀσμὴν ἰδίαν καὶ ζώων καὶ φυτῶν καὶ τῶν ἀψύχων ὅσα ὀσμώδη· πολλὰ [*](¹ And so here we have a term which possibly is applied only to the one class of ‘evil’ odours.) [*](2 Which is not an ‘evil’ odour.) [*](3 i.e. putridity is a quality which things acquire as they decay, and does not necessarily imply that they are them- selves formed out of decaying matter. In fact things so produced are not always ‘putrid. ’) [*](4 The sense is apparently that ‘lighter’ (or less solid) things exhale a lighter and pleasanter odour because in their)
Εἰσὶ μὲν οὖν ἔνιαι τῶν εὐόσμων καὶ ἐν ταῖς τροφαῖς, οἶον αἱ τῶν ἀκροδρύων καὶ ἀπίων καὶ μήλων· αὗται Φὰρ ἄνευ τῆς προσφορᾶς ἡδεῖαι, καὶ μᾶλλον ὡς εἰπεῖν. οὐ μὴν ἀλλ᾿ ὥς γ᾿ ἀπλῶς διελεῖν αἱ μέν εἰσι καθ᾿ αὑτὰς αἱ δὲ κατὰ συμβεβηκός· αἱ μὲν τῶν χυλῶν καὶ τῆς τροφῆς κατὰ συμβεβηκός, αἱ δ᾿ ὥσπερ τῶν ἀνθῶν καθ᾿ αὑτάς. ὡς δ᾿ ἐπίπαν τὰ εὔοσμα, καθάπερ καὶ πρότερον ἐλέχθη, δύσχυμα καὶ στρυφνὰ καὶ ὑπόπικρα. [*](¹ in Thrace. cf. Arist. H.A. 9. 36. Turn. quotes an illus- tration from Seriptor θαυμασίων ἀκουσμάτων 126.) [*](2 εὐωδίαις. ?εὐώδεσι.)
Ἐπεὶ δὲ τῶν ὀσμῶν αἱ μὲν ἐν φυτοῖς καὶ τοῖς τούτων μορίοις, οἷον κλωσὶ φύλλοις φλοιοῖς καρποῖς δακρύοις, αἱ δὲ ὥσπερ διείλομεν ἐν ζώοις καὶ φυτοῖς καὶ τοῖς ἀψύχοις, αὗται μὲν φανερὸν ὅτι πέψιν ἕκασται λαμβάνουσιν ἐν τοῖς οἰκείοις αἷς· καὶ τὸ εὐῶδες καὶ κακῶδες ἀκολουθεῖ κατὰ τὰς οἰκείας φύσεις, ἡ δὲ πέψις τῷ οἰκείῳ θερμῷ. ἐν δὲ τοῖς ἀψύχοις ταῖς τῶν ἁπλῶν δυνάμεσι καὶ γίνονται καὶ μεθίστανται καθάπερ οἱ χυμοί.