24 Greek Biology 



animal forms, investigation shows that he is reliable only when 

 treating of creatures native to the Aegean basin. As soon as he 

 gets outside that area his statements are almost always founded 

 on hearsay or even on fable. 1 Whatever assistance Aristotle 

 may have received in the preparation of his biological works 

 came, therefore, probably from no such picturesque and 

 distant source as the gossip of Pliny or Aelian would suggest. 

 We can conjecture that he received aid from the powerful 

 relatives of his wife at Atarneus and in Lesbos, and we may 



' J 



most reasonably suppose that after his return to Athens 

 much help would have been given him by his pupils within 

 the Lyceum. To them may probably be ascribed many 

 passages in the biological writings ; for it seems hardly 

 possible that Aristotle himself would have had time for detailed 

 biological research after he had settled as a teacher in Athens. 

 Of the work of these members of his school a fine monument 

 has survived in two complete botanical treatises and fragments 

 of others on zoological and psychological subjects by Theo- 

 phrastus of Eresus, his pupil and successor in the leadership of 

 the Lyceum and perhaps his literary legatee. 



When we turn to the Aristotelian biological works them- 

 selves we naturally inquire first into the question of genuineness, 

 and here a difficulty arises in that all his extant works have 

 come down to us in a state that is not comparable to those of 

 any other great writer. Among the ancients admiration was 

 expressed for Aristotle's eloquence and literary powers, but, in 

 the material that we have here to consider, very little trace of 

 these qualities can be detected by even the most lenient judge. 

 The arrangement of the subject-matter is far from perfect even 

 if we allow for the gaps and disturbances caused by their 

 passage through many hands. Moreover, there is much 

 repetition and often irrelevant digression, while the language 



1 The subject is well discussed by W. Ogle in the introduction to his 

 Aristotle on the Parts oj Animals, London, 1882. 



