Thesauros Literature biography Περὶ Ἴσιδος και Ὀσίριδος

Περὶ Ἴσιδος και Ὀσίριδος

Περὶ Ἴσιδος και Ὀσίριδος Plutarch
79 Again at midday, when they perceive that the sun is forcibly attracting a copious and heavy exhalation from the earth and is combining this with the air, they burn myrrh on the altars; for the heat dissolves and scatters the murky and turgid concretions in the surrounding atmosphere. In fact, physicians seem to bring relief to pestilential affections by making a large blazing fire, for this rarefies the air. But the rarefication is more effective if they burn fragrant woods, such as that of the cypress, the juniper, and the pine. At any rate, they say that Acron, the physician in Athens at the time of the great plague, won great repute by prescribing the lighting of a fire beside the sick, and thereby he helped not a few. Aristotle Cf. Rose, Aristoteles Pseudepigraphus, p. 233. says that fragrant exhalations from perfumes and flowers and meadows are no less conducive to health than to pleasure, inasmuch as by their warmth and lightness they gently relax the brain, which is by nature cold and frigid. If it is true that among the Egyptians they call myrrh bal, and that this being interpreted has the particular meaning the dissipation of repletion, then this adds some testimony to our account of the reason for its use.

nav.navigate

nav.identity

common.settings

common.language
TR EN
common.theme