On Unbelievable Stories (36-39)

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.][*]

People invented the idea that Panoptes, because he was eager to see and listen in on everything, had eyes covering his whole body. As a result, we still even now call people who are inquisitive in this way panoptic.

It is said that Selene fell in love with Endymion while he was sleeping, and that she came down and had sex with him. But rather, Endymion, as a shepherd, would have been inexperienced with women and so, if a woman lusted after him …[*] and, asked by someone who it was, would have said the Moon [Selene].

Regarding the cattle of Helios, I discovered an allegory in the Iliad. Among the ancients it was not acceptable to sacrifice working oxen to the gods. This is attested in Aratos, and is also clear from the poem itself. For Hecabe says to Athena:

To you I will sacrifice a broad-browed year-old heifer
not broken in, whom no man has yet harnessed to a yoke.

(Iliad 10.292-3) Not only this: there is also the fact that they were called cattle of Helios [the sun] because they work the land and are our source of sustenance. The companions of Odysseus made a feast of working oxen, not the cattle of Helios, and

because of their own insolence they incurred suffering beyond their allotment.

(Odyssey 1.34)