from the urine of the lynx, also indicates that the credulity of Theophrastus had its limits. Moreover, it seems to show that in the treatise On Stones Theophrastus may have purposely omitted the part of the story that accuses the lynx of hiding its urine owing to envy or jealousy. It is not unlikely that this fanciful explanation was generally considered an essential part of the story in his day.
28. This stone needs wording even more than the other kind.
This statement has been taken as evidence that lyngourion was a very hard stone that was difficult to cut or grind, though this difficulty is certainly not encountered in working amber. Whether this statement is true is by no means certain, especially when it is compared with the statements that precede it; but if it is assumed that it is true or that it contains an element of truth, it may refer only to the time needed for polishing the material when it is cut. If this interpretation is accepted, the statement could refer to amber as well as to a hard stone, so that it cannot be taken as evidence that lyngourion was not amber or a variety of amber.
29. And since amber is also a stone—for the \ind that is dug up is found in Liguria—the power of attraction would belong to this too.
Theophrastus has previously mentioned Liguria as a source of amber in section 16. The boundaries of ancient Liguria were not well defined; though the territory was probably restricted largely to northwestern Italy at the time of Theophrastus, it extended far along the coast of southern Gaul at an earlier date.188 At no time, however, did it include regions where amber occurred, nor was amber found in any region near it at the time of its greatest extent. The truth appears to be that amber was brought from the coasts of the North and Baltic seas by trade routes through Gaul, and that the Ligurians acted only as traders in this product.189 Theophrastus, like all other classical Greek writers who touch on the subject, apparently knew nothing about the real nature or the real source of amber.
188 W. W. Hyde, Roman Alpine Routes (Philadelphia, 1935), pp. 43, 134. 188 Ibid., pp. 42-43.
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