plant organisms and their environments shows him to have been an ecologist. Preserved by
Pho ̄tios is an excerpt (fr.435 FHSG) from another botanical work, On Honey, wherein
Theophrastos noted that honey is produced in three ways: 1) in flowers, 2) from the air,
when moisture is concocted and falls from the air, and 3) in reeds.
Theophrastos’ zoological On Fish is an odd essay describing exotic and unusual fishes,
especially two types: fish which venture onto land and live in air, and fish which bury
themselves in the ground and survive there, both living without water normally required
for cooling. Three excerpts preserved by Pho ̄tios also depict strange or extraordinary
phenomena. On Creatures which Change Color discusses the octopus, the chameleon, and the
horned animal tarand(r)os, the elk or reindeer. The first two change color in their skins
due to a change in “breath” (pneuma). The tarand(r)os changes color in its fur, but not
due to pneuma. On Creatures Appearing in Swarms concerns creatures arriving in large num-
bers (e.g., frogs, locusts, snakes, mice) due to favorable climatic or environmental condi-
tions and how they are exterminated by natural causes or human intervention. In On
Creatures Said to Be Grudging, Theophrastos attributes jealousy to animals; to spite humans,
they destroy or hide parts of their bodies useful to humans: e.g., geckoes swallow their
skins used for epilepsy, the mare bites off the fleshy growth (hippomanes) on her newborn’s
forehead used as a love charm, and lynxes bury their urine which turns into a precious
stone.
Theophrastos’ opuscula, largely etiological, are composed in question-and-answer format
like the A C P, with which they have much in common. On
Sense-Perception is primarily doxographical, recounting the opinions of natural philosophers
down to Plato according to categories of problems, within which chronologically according
to schools. On Stones and On Fire both consider phenomena associated with the combination
and alteration of elemental substances and not with earth and fire as elements themselves.
On Fire is structured much as the opuscula generally are – first there is a section on general
questions followed by individual problems. Theophrastos observes that fire is unlike the
other three elements, air, earth, and water, in that it alone requires an underlying substrate,
a fuel, in order to exist. Of the elements only fire can be created, e.g., by striking stones
together or from rubbing or friction. Several sections of this work address the operation of
the Sun, the status of its fire and the heat it generates. On Stones primarily treats non-fusible
stones, earths, and gems rather than metals or common rocks. He considers them composed
of earth, produced by some sort of filtering (die ̄the ̄sis) or conflux (surroe ̄), which purifies them,
and solidified by fire or some sort of heat. While Aristotle (Mete. 3.6 [378a17–27]) claimed
that stones are formed by dry “exhalation” (anathumiasis), Theophrastos makes little use of
this process. In his closely related On Metals (lost), Theophrastos apparently claimed that
metals (e.g., gold, silver, copper, etc.) come from water without mentioning the vaporous
“exhalation” as Aristotle had done (Mete. 3.6 [378a27–b4]). In his lost On Waters, Theophrastos
discussed the various qualities and powers of different types of waters (e.g., density, color,
taste) which he ascribed to differences in temperature and admixture of earth. He also
explained the Nile’s annual flood as partly due to compression (pile ̄sis) of rain clouds on
mountains. On Odors, no isolated treatise but most probably Book 8 of Plant Explanations,
primarily deals with odors produced by art and design (kata tekhne ̄n kai epinoian), i.e., human
intervention. Theophrastos’ extant meteorological works, Meteorology (lost in Greek; pre-
served only in Syriac and Arabic translation) and On Winds, complement one another in
many respects. Theophrastos’ Meteorology gives causes of thunder, lighting, thunder without
lightning, lightning without thunder, thunderbolts, clouds, different types of rains, snow,
THEOPHRASTOS OF ERESOS