On Unbelievable Stories (4-7)

The story handed down about Atlas is that he bore the sky on his shoulders. This is impossible, since he too is beneath the sky. But rather, Atlas was a wise man and the first to observe astronomical phenomena. He predicted storms and the shifting of the winds and the rising and setting of stars. [*] Because of this, a myth was fabricated that he bore the world upon himself.

It is said that around Mt Pelion and Mt Pholoe there existed double-formed creatures, who were human down to the hips and the rest of them had the form of a horse. This is not true: it is impossible for a being in which are merged different creatures to be born and nourished.

Rather, back when the usefulness of horses was still unknown, the men who first rode horses made raids on the plains and plundered them. To those who first saw them from far off, they gave the illusion that they were created from two creatures.

It is said that Teiresias had the experience of being both male and female. This is the same mistaken idea that I wrote about in the case of Caineus.

They say that Pasiphae was in love with a bull. It was not, as many people believe, an animal from the herd (for it is laughable for the queen to desire a creature impossible to mate with). But rather, she fell in love with one of the locals, a man called Tauros [Bull]. She enlisted Daidalos’ help in her amorous scheme and, having given herself over to Tauros, gave birth to a son who bore an extraordinary resemblance to him. People accepted him as Minos’ son, but they noted that he looked like Tauros. So he was called by the portmanteau Minotauros.