De Incredibilibus

The story about Pandora is not acceptable: that she was moulded from clay and then passed on her likeness to others. I don’t think this is the case.

Rather, Pandora was a very wealthy Greek woman and, whenever she went out, she would adorn herself by applying a lot of clay to her skin. She was the first to discover how to use a lot of clay to enhance her complexion. (Many women do this now, but none of them attracts comment for it because it's so common). That was the actual event, but the story was turned into something impossible.

Among the other foolish things people say is that the first race of humans was born from ash trees [meliai]. But I think it is not possible for humans to be born from wood.

Rather, there was a man called Melios, after whom were named the Meliai [‘daughters of Melios’], just as the Hellenes were named after Hellen and the Ionians were named after Ion. But that whole family line perished and the name was lost. Likewise, the races of iron and bronze never existed, but are made-up nonsense.