☷ All XXXVII booksEnter the Living Codex ↗

LIBER VIII · CAPUT 59

ANIMALS WHICH INJURE STRANGERS ONLY, AS ALSO ANIMALS WHICH INJURE THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY ONLY, AND WHERE THEY ARE FOUND

ANIMALS WHICH INJURE STRANGERS ONLY, AS ALSO ANIMALS WHICH INJURE THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY ONLY, AND WHERE THEY ARE FOUND. Complete modern editorial illustration created specifically for this chapter.
ANIMALS WHICH INJURE STRANGERS ONLY, AS ALSO ANIMALS WHICH INJURE THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY ONLY, AND WHERE THEY ARE FOUND · EDITORIAL PLATE VIII.59 · modern editorial plate
ANIMALS WHICH INJURE STRANGERS ONLY, AS ALSO ANIMALS WHICH INJURE THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY ONLY, AND WHERE THEY ARE FOUND. Complete modern editorial illustration created specifically for this chapter.

Latine · Mayhoff 1906

Iam quaedam animalia indigenis innoxia advenas interemunt, sicut serpentes parvi in Myrinthe, quos terra nasci proditur. item in Syria angues circa Euphratis maxime ripas dormientes Syros non attingunt aut, etiamsi calcati momordere, non sentiuntur malefici, aliis cuiuscumque gentis infesti, avide et cum cruciatu exanimantes, quam ob rem et Syri non necant eos. contra in Latmo Cariae monte Aristoteles tradit a scorpionibus hospites non laedi, indi- genas interemi. sed reliquorum quoque animalium [et praeterea terrestrium] dicemus genera.

English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57

Besides this, there are certain animals, which are harmless to the natives of the country, but destroy strangers; such are the little serpents at Tirynthus, which are said to spring from out of the earth. In Syria, also, and especially on the banks of the Euphrates, the serpents never attack the Syrians when they are asleep, and even if they happen to bite a native who treads upon them, their venom is not felt; but to persons of any other country they are extremely hostile, and fiercely attack them, causing a death attended with great torture. On this account, the Syrians never kill them. On the contrary, on Latmos, a mountain of Caria, as Aristotle tells us, strangers are not injured by the scorpions, while the natives are killed by them. But I must now give an account of other animals as well, and of the productions of the earth.