Fragments on Natural WondersἈποσπάσματα περὶ Θαυμασίων Φύσεως
Antigonus of Carystus Fragments on Natural Wonders PDF
The Fragments on Natural Wonders is a paradoxographical compilation attributed to Antigonus of Carystus, a Hellenistic author better known for his biographies and writings on art. The complete work is lost, surviving only in scattered excerpts preserved by later writers. These fragments document extraordinary natural phenomena, curious customs of distant peoples, and biological marvels, consistent with the Hellenistic genre of paradoxography, which sought to catalog wondrous facts about the world. The text is transmitted indirectly through quotations in later authors, including the Byzantine scholar Photius and various scholiasts. As an early example of this tradition, Antigonus’s collection contributed to the development of the genre and served as a source for later compilers, helping to perpetuate a catalog of natural marvels into Greco-Roman and later literary traditions.
| 3 | Anecd. Par. I, 391 Cramer: Ὁ δὲ Ἀντίγονός φησι τὸ θηλύγονον καὶ ἀρρενόγονον βοτάνας εἶναι, ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ συμβεβηκότος τὴν ἐπωνυμίαν εἰληφέναι· τὸν μὲν γὰρ αὐτὸν ποιεῖν πως θηλύνεσθαι δὲ τρίβολον ἐν οἴνῳ ἀπὸ πρωί. Καὶ ταῦτα μὲν ἐπί τε συλλήψεως καὶ κυήσεως· ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς εἰνάτης ἰσχυροποιῆσθαι καὶ ἀφὴν ὑπομένειν· τῇ δὲ τεσσαρακοστῇ προσλαμβάνειν τὸ γελαστικὸν καὶ ἄρχεσθαι ἐπιγινώσκειν μητέρα. |
| 4 | Tzetz., Chil. VII, 642 sqq.: (de miris gentibus ex Scylacis libris) ὅτι δ’ εἰσὶ τῶν ἀληθινῶν ἄλλοι φασὶ μυρίοι, τοιαῦτα καὶ καινότερα θεάσασθαι ἐν βίῳ (inter quos Isigonus, Sotion, Antigonus, Alexander, Protagoras, Agathosthenes). |
| 5 | Tzetz., Schol. Lyc. 387: Ἀλλὰ καὶ περὶ τῶν κηρύλων καὶ ἅ φησιν Ἀντίγονος λεκτέον· γηράσαντας τοὺς ἄρσενας ἀλκυόνας αἱ θήλειαι βαστάζουσι τοῖς πτηροῖς, ἐν δὲ τῇ συνουσίᾳ γηράσαντες οἱ ἄρρενες τελευ τῶσ ι. |
| 6 | Hesych. s. v. τάρανδος· ζῷον ἐλάφῳ παραπλήσιον, οὗ ταῖς δοραῖς εἰς χιτῶνας χρῶνται Σκύθα ι. |