Earth and Mineral

This section provides cross-references for the rocks and minerals mentioned in the paradoxographical texts, along with geological topics such as earthquakes or chemical topics (loosely speaking) such as fire. Since minerals cannot always be securely identified, the names are listed using the anglicized forms of the Greek names given in the texts, followed by the name in Greek, with cross-referenced entries for the English names. Where the mineral referred to by the Greek term is unknown or dubious, the anglicized form only will be used.

There does not appear to be any recent free-to-view online general reference resource on Graeco–Roman mineralogy. Healy's Mining and metallurgy in the Greek and Roman world (Thames and Hudson, 1978) is the most up-to-date relevant resource but is not freely available. Brief further information may be found in the entries in the Liddell–Scott–Jones Greek–English Lexicon, available online at the Perseus Project. For readers of German, the Pauly–Wissowa Realencyclopädie is gradually being put online as part of the Wikisource project; however, while it remains incomplete, the definitions given in the entries for this section will be based primarily on LSJ.