De Incredibilibus

They say Actaion was consumed by his own dogs. This is false: a dog loves its master, and especially the one who feeds it, and hunting dogs show affection to everyone. Some say that Artemis turned him into a deer and then his dogs tore the deer apart. I think that Artemis is capable of doing whatever she wants; and yet it can’t be true that a man changed into a deer, or a deer into a man. The poets fabricated these myths so that those who listened to them would not violate the gods’ domain.

The truth is as follows. Actaion was an Arcadian by birth and loved to hunt. Because he was always training his many dogs and hunting in the mountains, he neglected his own affairs. At that time, all men laboured for themselves and did not have slaves; the wealthiest man was the one who was most industrious. Actaion's livelihood was destroyed because he neglected his domestic affairs to go hunting instead. When he had nothing left, people would say, Wretched Actaion - he has been consumed by his own dogs!. It’s just like how even today, when someone wastes their fortune in brothels, we say, He has been consumed by prostitutes. Something like this was what really happened in the case of Actaion.

What they say about the horses of Diomedes is that they were man-eaters: how laughable! Horses much prefer grass and barley to human flesh!

The truth is as follows. In the distant past men laboured for themselves and only by working the land did they get food and other such necessities. At some stage someone figured out how to keep horses and he took such pleasure in his horses that he ended up ruining himself by squandering everything he had to feed them. And from these actual events the myth spread.