On Unbelievable Stories (25-29)

They say that Glaucos was consumed by his horses. What they don’t realise is that he was a breeder of horses and that, because he suffered serious losses and didn’t look after his affairs, he was destroyed.

This myth, too, is completely laughable. It says that after Glaucos died in a barrel of honey, Minos buried an Argive man, Polyidos, son of Coiranos, in his tomb. Polyidos had seen a serpent treating another serpent which had died with a herb and resurrecting it and it is said that he did the same thing to Glaucos and resurrected him. But this is impossible. A dead man cannot be resurrected – nor a snake, nor any other living being!

Something of this sort happened. Glaucos drank some honey and it upset his bowels. He became ever more sick and fell unconscious. Among the physicians who came, greedy for money, was Polyidos. He knew that a certain herb would help -- he had learnt about it from a physician called Draco [‘Serpent’]. When Glaucos was close to death, he treated him using this plant and returned him to health. And so people would say, When Glaucos died from honey, Polyidos resurrected him with a plant he had learnt about from Draco. And from this storytellers fashioned the myth.

It is said that this Glaucos once ate a certain herb, became immortal, and now lives in the sea. The idea that Glaucos alone would have happened upon this particular herb is utterly naive. And the same can be said of the idea that a human – or any other terrestrial animal – could live in the sea when not even river creatures can survive in the sea (or, conversely, sea creatures survive in rivers). So, the story is foolish.

The truth is as follows. Glaucos was a fisherman from Anthedon and a diver without equal. While he was diving in the harbour, and people were watching him from the town, he swam across to a certain spot and was not seen for several days by the townspeople. They caught sight of him swimming back and asked him, Where were you these last few days?, and he said, In the sea.

He also kept fish in a tank and, whenever there was a storm and none of the other fishermen could catch fish, he would ask the townspeople which fish they would like, and he would provide them whatever they wanted. Glaucos got the nickname ‘of the sea’ in the same way that today, when someone lives in the mountains and is a good hunter, this man is called ‘of the mountain’. So it was just because Glaucos spent most of his time in the sea that he was dubbed ‘Glaucos of the sea’. And he died when he encountered a savage sea creature. Since he didn’t emerge from the sea, people created the myth that he was living in the sea and would live there for the rest of time.

They say that Bellerophon rode Pegasos, a winged horse. But I don’t think that a horse would ever be capable of flight, not even if it had all the wings of flying creatures. And if such a creature existed then, it would exist now too. They also say that he killed Amisodaros’ Chimaira. The Chimaira was ‘a lion at the front, a serpent at the back and a she-goat in the middle’. Some think that such a beast really did exist even though it had three heads upon one body. But it is impossible for a snake, a lion and a goat to eat the same sort of food. And a mortal being able to breathe fire? Absurd! And which of the heads did the body obey?

The truth is this. Bellerophon was an exile from Corinth, a handsome and noble man. He equipped a large ship and set about plundering and looting the coastal territories as he sailed by. The name of his ship was Pegasos (just as now every ship has a name; and I think the name Pegasos would more likely be given to a ship than to a horse).

King Amisodaros lived near the Xanthos river on a high mountain onto which encroached the Telmissis wood. There are two routes up the mountain: the one at the front from the city of Xanthos, the other, at the back, from Caria. Everywhere else is steep cliffs. In the middle of these is a great chasm in the earth, from which fire erupts. The name of this mountain is Chimaira. Those living near it say that at one time a lion lived along the route at the front and a serpent along the route at the back and that both of these would attack woodcutters and shepherds. Then Bellerophon came and set fire to the mountain. The Telmissis wood was completely burnt down and the beasts killed. And so, those living nearby would say, When Bellerophon arrived with Pegasos, he destroyed Amisodaros’ Chimaira. The myth was fabricated from this actual event.

They say that Pelops came to Pisa with winged horses to court Hippodameia, the daughter of Oinomaos. I repeat what I said about Pegasos. If Oinomaos had noticed that Pelops' horses had wings, he would never have let his daughter step foot in his chariot.

What can be said instead is that Pelops came with a ship upon whose cabin were depicted winged horses. He seized the girl and fled. And so people would say that Pelops seized the daughter of Oinomaos and fled on ‘winged horses’. And so the myth was fabricated.