On Unbelievable Stories (41)

Hesiod, among others, records that Zethos and Amphion built the walls of Thebes with a cithara. Some people think that when they played the cithara the stones rose of their own accord to the top of the walls.

The truth is as follows. Zethos and Amphion were exceedingly talented cithara players and they performed for payment. People at that time did not have currency. So Amphion and his brother ordered those who wanted to hear them play to go work on the walls. But it was not the stones themselves who listened and obeyed! Thus in fact people were speaking perfectly correctly when they said that the walls were built with a lyre.