Damascius' Paradoxography

Photius, Bibliotheca 130:

"Read a work by Damascius in four books,

• the first of which, in 352 chapters, is entitled, On Incredible Events;
• the second, in 52 chapters, On Incredible Stories of D[ai]mons;
• the third, in 63 chapters, On Incredible Stories of Souls that have appeared after Death;
• the fourth, in 105 chapters, On Incredible Natures.

They all contain impossible, incredible, and clumsily invented tales of wonderful things, foolish and worthy of the impious and godless Damascius, who, while the light of the true religion spread over the world, remained steeped in the thick darkness of idolatry. The style is concise, clear, and agreeable, which is not usually the case in such stories." (tr. J. H. Freese)

The fragments of the Philosophical History give something of an idea of the kinds of events that were told in this lost work. Texts about "incredible" things, so-called paradoxographies, were an established genre from very early on in Greek literature, but were not usually connected to narratives of "ghosts" or daimons. However, such tales were not a novelty per se, although I don't know of any earlier collections (which of course doesn't mean there weren't any).