History of Monsters. 197
...Philomela laments the crime of unholy Tereus; she who was once a mute girl is now said to be a talkative bird.
After Pandion’s death, Erichtheus seized the Athenian throne with the help of Pallas. He had four daughters, the most beautiful of whom were Procris, who married Cephalus, and Orithyia. Boreas, the North Wind of Thrace, carried Orithyia away to his homeland, where she bore him two sons, Zetes and Calais, who later joined the Argonauts in their quest for the Golden Fleece.
In his seventh book, Ovid recounts how these Minyans of Thessaly and the sons of Orithyia sailed until they reached Phineus, who was living in utter misery. Having blinded his own sons, Orythus and Carabis, Phineus had been cursed with the same punishment. Furthermore, he was plagued by the Harpies—foul birds that snatched away his food—until Zetes and Calais drove them off to do him a favor. From there, they traveled to Colchis to claim the Golden Fleece. They were told that they must first tame bulls that breathed fire from their mouths and nostrils, withstand an onslaught of armed men springing from sown teeth, and lull to sleep the dragon that guarded the fleece. Jason, the son of Aeson, undertook these tasks and won the heart of Medea, the king’s daughter. With her aid, he overcame every trial, seized the Golden Fleece, and returned to Corinth with Medea. There, with the help of his wife’s expertise in the magic arts, he restored his father Aeson to the vigor of a forty-year-old. Witnessing this miracle, Bacchus asked Medea to restore his own nurses to their former youth. Medea not only did this gladly but also granted Bacchus himself perpetual adolescence.
Meanwhile, the daughters of Pelias, who were Jason’s enemies, were living on familiar terms with Medea. Having seen these wonders, they begged her to strip away the old age of their father, Pelias. Seeking vengeance against Jason's foe, Medea convinced the women to kill their own father and boil him in a cauldron. Once the deed was done, Medea climbed into a chariot drawn by dragons and flew toward Mount Othrys in Thessaly. It was there, during the great flood of Deucalion, that Cerambus had been transformed into a bird after imploring the nymphs for help.
...through the event, the places known to old Cerambus, who here, by the help of the Nymphs, was lifted into the air on wings.
Next, she sought the Idæan grove, where she saw Maera turned into a dog.
...and the fields which Maera terrified with her strange barking.
From this region, Medea approached the city of Eurypylus, where the beautiful matrons of Cos, having boasted of being more fair than Venus, were turned into horned cows.
...and the city of Eurypylus, where the Coan mothers grew horns.
From there, she entered the city of Cea, where Alcidamas beheld a dove born from his own daughter’s body.
Where the father Alcidamas was to marvel that a gentle dove could be born from his daughter's body.
Medea continued to survey other places, including the spot where a youth named Cygnus fell deeply in love. When he was denied a bull he had requested, he threw himself headlong from a high place and took the form of a swan.
He leaped from the cliff; everyone thought he had fallen, but having become a swan, he hung in the air on snowy wings.
His mother, Hyria, unaware that her son had been saved, wept for his fate day after day until she was eventually transformed into a pool that bears her name.
But the mother Hyria, not knowing he was safe, wasted away with weeping and became a lake named after herself.
She then traveled further to the Aetolian city called Pleuron, where Combe, the daughter of Ophius, fled on wings to escape the grief of her sons' deaths.
Next to these lies Pleuron, where, on trembling wings, Combe, the daughter of Ophius, escaped the wounds of her sons.
From there, she also went to Calaureia, where it is said that King Lathous and his wife were transformed into birds