On Unbelievable Stories (34-36)

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.

They say that the daughters of Helios were transformed from humans into black poplars. That wasn’t what happened. Rather, because of what happened to their brother, they threw themselves into the river Eridanos. When people searched beside the river and did not find them, but did find the trunks of three black poplars, they assumed that the daughters had been turned into trees. [Their names were Phoibe, Lampeto and Aigle.][*]