De Incredibilibus

The account given about Phineus is that the Harpies plundered his livelihood. Some think that they are winged creatures who carried off Phineus’ food from his table.

This is the truth. Phineus was the king of Paionia. He became blind as an old man and his sons died. His daughters Eraseia and Harpyreia …[*](There is a lacuna in the text here.) squandered his livelihood. And so the townspeople would say, Wretched Phineus! The Harpies are plundering his livelihood. Pitying him, his neighbours Zetos and Calais, sons of Boreas (a man, not the wind), came to help. They chased his daughters out of the city, collected some money for him and appointed one of the Thracians as a trustee.

They say about Mestra, daughter of Erysichthon, that she could change shape whenever she wanted. This is an utterly ridiculous myth! For how is it possible for a girl to turn into a cow, and then a dog or bird?

The truth is as follows. Erysichthon was a Thessalian who became poor after wasting his money. He had a beautiful daughter named Mestra, who was of marriageable age. Whoever laid eyes on her was overcome with desire. At that time, men did not offer money for a bride, but instead offered gifts – some of horses, others of cows or sheep, or whatever Mestra wanted. The Thessalians, watching Erysichthon's wealth increasing, would say, The horse, cow and everything else, they’ve all come to Erysichthon from Mestra. It's from this that the myth was fabricated.

They say that Geryon was three-headed. But it is impossible for a body to have three heads.

Something like this actually happened. There is a city on the Black Sea called Trihead. Geryon was famous among people at that time for his wealth, amongst other things. Heracles came for his marvellous herd of cattle and killed Geryon when he resisted. People who saw the cattle being driven off were amazed: for although they were of small stature, they were long from the head to the loins and had flat noses, no horns, and large, broad bones. And so they would say to anyone who asked, Heracles drove off the cattle belonging to Triheaded Geryon. Because of this response, some thought him to have three heads.

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.