XVI 



ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORDS CROCUS AND SAFFRON. 



Callimachus, Hymn to Apollo, 81, speaks of the scented Crocus as a winter 

 flower : — 



ai'Oea fltv (popcoveiv eV e'c'api, toaaa irep lepai 

 ttoikiX' a^ivevac £c(j>vpov irveiovioi ccpoijv, 



^e//(«Ti Be upoicov fjSuv. 



The Greek writers on natural history have something to say about the Crocus. 

 Aristotle, Mir. Ausc, iii, speaks of the quantity which grew in Sicily, eh> rfj a K pa rr/s 

 Si/ceXia? tt) KaXovfjLepy IIeX.wp(,aSt toctovtov yiveaOai KpoKov, coare, etc., but an obvious 

 hiatus in the text makes the sequel unintelligible. Theophrastus tells us that the 

 root is fleshy (o-ap/cwS^s, Hist. Plant, i, 8, 9, 10), that the plant is herbaceous 

 (ttowS^s, Hist. Plant, i, 10), that the leaves are like those of Tragopogon, only 

 not so long (vii, 8) like those of Narcissus, only narrower (vii, 11). The Crocus 

 has no stem but the flower stalk, and this flower stalk appears before the leaves ; 

 it has no conspicuous fruit, but the flower dies down with the flower stalk, and 

 when it is withered! the leaves spring up (vii, 11). The text of Theophrastus is 

 unfortunately exceedingly corrupt, and breaks down in the two following passages 

 which distinguish more than one kind of Crocus, They are (vi, 8, 3) where the 

 MS. reading- is /ecu 6 /cpoKo? o, re opeu-os euocr/xos kcu 6 yp-epos ; and the author is 

 conjectured to have written 0, re opuvos aocrpos kcu 6 rjpepos ; and (vii, 7, 4) where 

 the MS. reading is Kaddirep ovSe 6 k/x>kos, ovre 6 evocr/xos, ovd' 6 Xev/co?, ovO' 6 aKavdcoSrjs, 

 ovtol Se dvoa-p-oL. The word d/qjii^wS^s, ' thorny ' makes nonsense, since the passage 

 cannot be understood of Carthanius tinctorius. 'Avavduhrjs has been conjectured, a 

 word which does not occur elsewhere, and may mean either ' without bloom,' or 

 ' bloominc again ' ; and docr/xoi is read for dvoapoi. These are rather shaky foundations 

 for the statement made by Hehn.J "Theophrastus distinguishes accurately between 

 the wild, opewos, not scented Crocus vermis, and the cultivated, rjpepos, and scented 

 Crocus (Hist. Plant., vi, 8, 3). The former he also calls the white, and a third 

 kind the thorny Crocus, both of which are scentless (vii, 7, 4)." Into the impossible 

 determination of KpoKos ope^o? as C. vermis, Allione, he has probably been misled 

 by Fraas.§ In fact, it is quite impossible to determine specifically any of the kinds 



* These lines have given the Scholiast an opportunity for suggesting an etymology for Kpoxos which he 

 wishes to derive from Kpiios, napa to ev Kpvec 66XKco6ai ! No less absurd is the derivation of KpoKuheCkos from 

 kp6kos and StlAoj given by the old giammarians : " Terrestrem quidem crocodilum dictum volunt napa t6 (pofie'ioBat 

 rov KpoKov, unde et apiarii crocum alvearibus apponunt, quo conspecto fug.it." Stephani Tlicsaurus, sub voce. 



f avavBfi, the reading avavSjj, ' reflorescit,' makes nonsense. 



I Edition 1870, p. 177 ; edition 1883, p. 213. 



§ Synopsis plantarum flora classics, p. 292, where k/jokoj cvoo-pos is identified with Crocus sativus, L., the 

 Homeric Crocus and itpoKos 6 Acukoj of Theophrastus with Croa/s vcrnus, Allione, ft albiflorus, which the author 

 states to be common in Attica ! and the Kpoxos aKav6w&i]t icai aocrpos of Theophrastus with Crocus minimus, D.C., 



