144 GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 



design of destroying their master's works, on no other ground than that 

 Aristotle was thought to have aided Antipater in destroying Alexander. 1 

 its possible To attempt to account for the origin of so absurd a charge as that . 

 we have been discussing may perhaps appear rash. We cannot, how- 

 ever, resist the temptation to hazard a conjecture that while the in- 

 timacy of Aristotle with Antipater undoubtedly furnished a favourable 

 soil for the growth of the story, the actual germ of it is to be looked 

 for at Delphi. The cup in the treasure-house there, which the epigram 

 we have quoted above represents as presented by Alexander, was pro- 

 bably of onyx, a stone of which the coloured layers, resembling as they 

 do the outer coats of a hoof, procured it the name by which it goes. 

 Now, it is obvious that in the time of which we are speaking, when the 

 merchant who sold the wares was, for the most part, himself a traveller 

 in distant countries, marvellous tales would be related respecting the 

 strange commodities which he imported. The onyx might to the ad- 

 miring Greek be represented as the solid hoof of some strange animal, 

 with no less plausibility than in the fourteenth century a cocoa-nut 

 could be sold as a griffin's egg a long univalve shell represented as 

 the horn of a land animal or the ammonites of Malta regarded as 

 serpents changed into stone by St. Paul. 2 And although the more 

 extensive communication with the East, which commenced after Alex- 

 ander's expedition, would, in process of time, spread more correct views 

 on the subject of natural productions, the old legends would linger in 

 the temples, handed down traditionally by the attendants, who showed 

 the curiosities to strangers, and were expected to be provided with a 

 story for every relic. 3 If any one of these Ciceroni (|iyyjjrat), aware of 



1 Xiphilinus, Epitom. Dionis. pp. 329, 330. Caracalla wore arms and used drink- 

 ing cups which had belonged to Alexander, erected a great number of statues to 

 him both in Rome and at the several military stations, and raised a phalanx of 

 Macedonians, armed all after the manner of five centuries back, which he named 

 after the Conqueror of the East. [In his wish to destroy the philosopher's works 

 (/cal TO. )3tj3Ata avrov KaTUKavffai e0eA.7j(Tat) he had the precedent of Caligula, who 

 threatened to do the same with the works of the jurists and of Livy, and in the 

 case of the latter carried his threat out to a considerable extent. Suetonius, Vit. 

 Calig. 34.] See also Dio Cassius. Ixxvii. 7. 



2 Compare, for instance, the stories related by Herodotus (iii. 102-111) of the 

 way in which gold-dust and the various spices brought from the East were pro- 

 cured. The account which he gives of cinnamon is confirmed, with a little varia- 

 tion in the details, by Aristotle, Hist. Anim. ix. 13, p. 616, col. 1, Bekk. 

 Theophrastus (Hist. PI. iv. 7, 8) represents various corals as plants growing in the 

 Indian Ocean. The Madrepora muricata is termed by him " stone thyme." The 

 informant of Herodotus was no doubt some one of the travelling merchants which 

 came by the caravans to Egypt. 



3 It has been remarked by Heeren, that Herodotus's account of the history 

 of Egypt is derived entirely from local narrations connected with public monu- 

 ments. (Manual of Ancient History, pp. 52, 53, Eng. transl.) This remark 

 admits of far wider application. It would not be difficult to show that almost all 

 the early events recorded by that author rest on the same basis. For instance, the 

 history of the Lydian kings in the first book is obviously entirely made up of 

 stories connected with offerings in the temples of Apollo at Delphi and Miletus. 

 This is plain from the fact that every narrative at all circumstantial of any of these 



