On Unbelievable Stories (5)

What they say about the Teumesian Fox is that it snatched up and devoured the Cadmeians. This is naive! For no other land-based animal is able to snatch up and carry off a human, and the fox is small and weak.

Something of the following sort took place. There was once a Theban man called Fox. He was handsome and noble – and cunning. For he surpassed everyone else in craftiness. The king, afraid that Fox was scheming against him, banished him from the city. So Fox raised a great army, hired mercenaries and captured the hilltop called Teumesos. Using this as his base, he raided the Thebans and carried off captives. And so people would say, Fox preys on us and then retreats! But a man called Cephalos, an Athenian by birth, came to the Thebans as an ally with a great army. He killed Fox and drove off his army from Teumesos. It was from these actual events that those myths arose.