On Incredible Tales

by Palaephatus

Also known as: On Unbelievable Tales, Peri Apiston, On Incredibilities

On Incredible Tales cover
Culture:Greek
Written:400-300 BCE
Length:100 pages, (~2 hours)
On Incredible Tales cover
A short rationalizing treatise that explains famous Greek myths as plausible human events, misread metaphors, or garbled reports rather than supernatural marvels.

Description

Palaephatus' brief chapters present well-known myths and then offer matter-of-fact explanations for how such stories arose without divine or monstrous causes. Ships with animal figureheads become “bulls” or “cows,” mounted warriors are mistaken for half-horse beings, and proverb or nickname becomes history. Names, place-legends, and occupation titles are reinterpreted as sources of confusion, producing a tidy catalogue of demythologizing case studies. Rather than allegory, the method is euhemeristic and etymological, treating marvels as errors of language, transmission, or politics. The work stands as a classic example of Greek rationalizing mythography and a touchstone for later paradoxographical and mythographic traditions.

Historiography

The treatise survives in Byzantine manuscript tradition, with variations in chapter order and occasional textual difficulties typical of short mythographic collections. Ancient testimonia are sparse, and the author’s identity remains obscure beyond the traditional name. The work exemplifies Classical rationalizing (euhemeristic) approaches alongside later paradoxographers. Its concise, case-by-case format influenced subsequent handbooks and supplied later compilers with demythologizing exempla.

Date Notes

Commonly dated to the late Classical period; precise authorship, place, and chronology are uncertain and debated.

Themes

Major Characters

  • Heracles
  • Theseus
  • Ariadne
  • Dionysus
  • Europa
  • Pasiphae
  • Minotaur

Myths

  • Demythologizing Miraculous Tales
  • Rational Explanations for Heroes and Monsters
  • Origins of Wonders and Portents

Facts

  • Greek title is conventionally given as "Peri Apiston" (On Incredible/Unbelievable Tales).
  • Each chapter presents a mythic marvel and then a concise rational explanation rejecting the supernatural.
  • The method is euhemeristic and linguistic, often appealing to nicknames, titles, and mistranslated terms.
  • Ships’ figureheads and device-names explain several animal metamorphoses and abductions by sea.
  • Mounted fighters serve as the source for tales of Centaurs—humans mistaken for half-horse beings.
  • The Minotaur is treated as a man named or titled "Taurus" rather than a literal bull-man.
  • Actaeon’s "dogs" can be read as figurative attackers or retainers who turn on their patron.
  • The work avoids allegory in favor of historical-social plausibility grounded in ordinary causes.
  • Later mythographic and paradoxographical compilers cite or mirror this rationalizing style.
  • Textual transmission is Byzantine; chapter sequence and readings vary across manuscripts.