Kitap 2
15
And of other waters, those which come from rocks he calls dark, as being quite useless; and he prefers to all others the waters of springs, and those which rise to the surface from a great depth, and through rich soil. As also Hesiod says— A ceaseless spring of clear untroubled flow. And Pindar says— Ambrosial water, like fresh honey sweet, Which from Tilphossa's lovely fountains flows; (Tilphossa is a fountain in Bœotia;) and Aristophanes says that Tiresias died from drinking of it, as at his advanced age he was unable to bear its extreme cold. And Theophrastus, in his book on Waters, says that the water of the Nile is the most productive and the sweetest of all waters, and that it is also very relaxing to the bowels of those who drink it, as it has in it a mixture of nitre. And again, in his book on Plants, he says that there is in some places water which has a procreative tendency; as for instance at Thespiæ: and at Pyrrha there is a water which causes barrenness. But it happened once when there was a drought in the district around the Nile, that the water of that river became unwholesome, and many of the Egyptians died. Theophrastus states, moreover, that not only do bitter waters sometimes change their nature, but that salt water does so too, and sometimes whole rivers do so; as in the case of the fountain in Cithæron, near which there is a temple of Jupiter; and of that in Cairo, near which there is a temple of Neptune: and the reason is, that many thunderbolts fall in those countries.
