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THEOPHRASTUS ON STONES
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end products, pumice in the one case and ash in the other, are somewhat similar in superficial appearance.
Obsidian from the Lipari Islands and the neighboring volcanic regions was used from early times for ornamental and useful purposes by the peoples of the Mediterranean region, as is clearly shown by the numerous archaeological finds.70
Theophrastus appears to be the first writer to give a distinctive name to obsidian, diough it is not improbable that the black stone mentioned by Plato71 was also obsidian. Pliny72 called it obsiana (neuter plural); this spelling appears in Mayhoff's text, but there is a variant reading, obsidiana, which is the origin of the present English name.
14. Melos.
This is an island of volcanic origin in the southern Aegean about halfway between Crete and die southern tip of Attica. In his reference to the pumice of Melos, Theophrastus seems to mean that it occurred in separated cells in the solid rock, though this was not obsidian. Probably he refers to the occurrence of pumice in ordinary rhyolite.
Pumice is abundant both on the Lipari Islands and on Melos, and these localities are leading commercial sources at the present day. Theophrastus refers to pumice in more detail in sections 19, 20, 21, and 22. See also the notes to these sections.
15. Tetras.
It is clear from the reference to Lipara that this was situated somewhere in the northeastern corner of Sicily. This locality is not mentioned elsewhere. Though it is very brief, the statement about the stone found at Tetras shows clearly that it was some volcanic product similar to the one mentioned in the preceding section.
15. Erineas. This name is not found elsewhere. Strabo73 mentions a town,
70 H. Blflmner, Technologic und Terminologie der Gewerbe und Kiinste bet Griechen und Romern (Leipzig, 1875-1887), Vol. Ill, pp. 273-74; J. R. Partington, Origins and Development of Applied Chemistry (London, 1935), pp. 103, 324.
71 Timaeus, 60D (τδ μί\αν χρώμα ϊχον elios). 72XXXV1, 196.
73IX, 4. 10.
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