On Unbelievable Stories (31-35)

They say that Diomedes’ horses were man-eaters. But they were actually a wild-grazing herd. No one had been able to harness them to a chariot – but Heracles managed it.

It does not make sense that Calypso offered to make mortal Odysseus immortal. What she actually offered were magnificent, plentiful things for his nourishment and enjoyment during his life. Because of this, whenever we recline at a feast, enjoying ourselves magnificently, we too say we are among the gods.

Cerberos should be interpreted in the way I have interpreted the Hydra, i.e. that he had two pups who always walked beside their father, such that it seemed that he had three heads.

They give the account that, after Zeus had sex with Lamia, Hera transformed her into a beast, and that whenever Lamia becomes mad, she takes out her eyes and places them into a cup, and that she eats flesh, even that of humans.

This is what actually happened: Zeus, who was a king, had sex with her because she was beautiful. Hera kidnapped her, gouged out her eyes and cast her out into the mountains. From then on, she lived there in misery and had no one to look after her. Since she lived in the wilds, unwashed and neglected, she appeared to be a beast.

The account they give is that Procne, Philomela and Tereus were transformed into birds: a swallow, a nightingale and a hoopoe respectively. This is what actually happened. Procne and Philomela killed Itys and looted his house. They boarded a small boat and made a swift escape. Tereus chased after them and when he failed to capture them, he killed himself. As a result of their disappearance, people said that they had turned into birds because they vanished so suddenly.