De Incredibilibus

They say that Niobe was a living woman who turned into stone on the grave of her children. Whoever believes that a human can turn into a stone or a stone turn into a human is naive.

The truth is as follows. After her children died, someone made a stone statue of Niobe and stood it on the grave. And so passers-by would say, A stone Niobe stands on the grave. We saw her ourselves! It’s just like how some say nowadays, I was sitting beside the bronze Heracles or I was beside the marble Hermes. This was like that too, but Niobe herself was definitely not turned into stone!

It’s said that Lynceus could even see things underground. This is false.

The truth is as follows. Lynceus was the first to mine copper and silver etc. He took lamps down into the mine. He left them down there and brought up sacks of bronze and iron. And so people would say, Lynceus even sees things underground - he goes down there and brings up silver.