A moment's inattention

Oedipus solves the riddle of the sphinx and the said enigmatic creature promptly vanishes. Almost immediately, a wild beast starts to terrorise Thebes, killing livestock and even babies. Fortunately, Diana had given the fastest running hound in the world, Laelaps, to Cephalus' wife, who gave it to Cephalus. When the local people can stand the situation no longer, they ask Cephalus to lend them his hound to track the wild beast.

The hound easily picks up the scent of the beast and gives chase, across a vast plain. Cephalus watches the scene from a hilltop. The hound catches up with the beast, but the beast is cunning and starts running in a circle, so that the hound can't quite catch it. While Cephalus is watching the race, he has a moment's inattention, which allows the gods to intervene. The gods petrify the two creatures into a statue.