Stoctas

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Stoctas Plinius in insulis tantum eiusdem nominis gignitur odorata herba ysopo similis amara gustu et cetera.


Apparatus:

Stoctas ABC f | Stoetas jp | Stoctas or Stoetas ms. e | Stoechas Pliny
insulis | ynsulis ms. e
gignitur | ginitur C
ysopo ABC | ysopi efjp
et cetera om. ep


Translation:

Stoctas, Pliny says that it only grows on the islands of the same name; it is a fragrant plant, similar to ysopus {"hyssop"}, of bitter taste, etc.


Commentary:

Stoctas must be a very early misreading of stoec(h)as, with 'e' misread as 'c' and 'c' misread as 't', since most witnesses - except jp and possibly e - show this corruption.

This is a near verbatim quote from Pliny, 27, 107, 131, ed. Rackham (1938-63: VII.470): Stoechas in insulis tantum eiusdem nominis gignitur, odorata herba, coma hysopi, amara gustu, the only difference being Pliny’s coma hysopi "foliage of hyssop" rather than Simon's ysopo similis "similar to hyssop".

Pliny agrees with Dyascorides, cf. Sticados (1) that the herb is named after αἱ Στοιχάδες {sc. νῆσοι} /hai Stoikhádes (sc. nêsoi)/}, in Latin Stoechades insulae, located near Marseille and nowadays called les Îles d'Hières. The name is derived from /στοῖχος/ /stoîkhos/ with a collateral form στίχος /stíkhos/ meaning "row, file", because said islands are strung out in a row.

The name of the plant in Greek is στοιχάς /stoikhás/, Latinised stoechas, grammatically a singular form to Στοιχάδες /Stoikhádes/.

WilfGunther (talk) 22:27, 31 January 2016 (GMT)

For further information see Sticados (1).


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