A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

342 PHOCUS. PHOCYLIDES.
hemlock which had been prepared was found in- him with a discus (some say withl a spear duri:g,
sufficient for all the condemned, and the jailer the chase). The brothers carefully concealed the
would not furnish more until he was paid for it, deed, but it was nevertheless found out, and they
"Give the man his money," said Phocion to one were obliged to emigrate fiom Aegina. (Apollod.
of his friends, " since at Athens one cannot even iii. 12. ~ 6; Paus. ii. 29. ~ 7; Plut Parall. MAinbi.
die for nothing." He perished in B. c. 317, at 25.) Psamathe afterwards took vengeance for the
the age of 85. In accordance with the law against murder of her son, by sending a wolf among the
traitors, his body was cast out on the confines of flocks of Peleus, but she was prevailed upon by
Attica and Megara (see Diet. ofAnt. s.v. Prodosia), Thetis to change the animal into a stone. (Tzetz.
and his friends were obliged to hire a mail, who ad Lye. 901; Anton. Lib. 38.) The tomb of
was in the habit of undertaking such services, to Phocus was shown in Aegina. (Paus. ii. 29. ~ 7.)
burn it. His bones were reverently gathered up Phocus is said shortly before his death to have
and buried by a woman of Megara; and after- emigrated to Phocis, but to have soon returned to
wards, when the people repented of their conduct, Aegina; but the country of Phocis, part of which
were brought back to Athens, and interred at the was already called by his name, is said to have
public expense. A brazen statue was then raised been extended by him. While in Phocis he conto his memory, Agnonides was condemned to eluded an intimate friendship with laseus, which
death, and two more of his accusers, Epicurus was confirmed by the present of a seal-ring;
and Demophilus, having fled from the city, were and this scene was represented in the Lesche at
overtaken and slain by Phocus. Delphi. (Paus. ii. 29. ~ 2, &c., x. 1. ~ I, 30. ~ 2.)
Phocion was twice married, and his second wife Panopeus and Crissus, the sons of Phocus, are
appears to have been as simple and frugal in her likewise said to have emigrated to Phocis (ii. 29.
habits as himself; but he was less fortunate in his ~ 2). [L. S.]
son Ph6cus, who, in spite of his father's lessons PHOCY'LIDES (,oosvXL'isjc), of Miletus, an
and example, was a thorough profligate. As for Ionian poet, contemporary with Theognis, both
Phocion himself, our commendation of him must having been born, according to Suidas (s. v.) in the
be almost wholly confined to his private qualities. 55th Olympiad, B. C. 560, which agrees with EuseHe is said to have been the last eminent Athenian bius, who places Phocylides at 01. 60 (B. c. 540)
who united the two characters of general and as a contemporary of the lyric poet Simonides. Acstatesman; but he does not appear to advantage in cording to Suidas, he wrote epic poems and elegies;
the latter capacity. Contrasting, it may be, the among which were lIapav,eeis or rvpZCua, which
Platonic ideal of a commonwealth with the actual were also called Kedfacaa. This gnomic poetry
corruption of his countrymen, he neither retired, shows the reason why Suidas calls him a philosolike his masterh into his own thoughts, nor did pher. Most of the few fragments we possess are
he throw himself, with the noble energy of De- of this character; and they display that contempt
mosthenes, into a practical struggle with the evil for birth and station, and that love for substantial
before him. His fellow-citizens may have been enjoyment, which always marked the Ionian chadegenerate, but he made no effort to elevate them. racter. One of his gnomic precepts, on the virtue
He could do nothing better than despair and rail. of moderation, is quoted with praise by Aristotle
We may therefore well believe that his patriotism (Polit. iv. 8):was not very profound; we may be quite sure - 1 v a ao w E V-E a
that it was not very wise. As a matter of fact, he
mainly contributed to destroy the independence of The didactic character of his poetry is shown by
Athens; and he serves to prove to us that private the frequent occurrence of verses beginning, Kal
worth and purity, though essential conditions in- T65e woKUvAtl3Eo. These words no doubt formed
deed of public virtue, are no infallible guarantee the heading of each of those sections (tcEapdXAa),
for it. (Plut. Phocion, Demosthenes, Reg. et Imp. in which, as we have seen from Suidas, the poems
Apopth.; C. Nep. Phocion; Diod. xvi. 42, 46, 74, of Phocylides were arranged.
xvii. 15, xviii. 64, &c.; Ael. V.H. i. 25, ii. 16, We possess only about eighteen short fragments
43, iii. 17, 47, iv. 16, vii. 9, xi. 9, xii. 43, 49, of his poems, of which only two are in elegiac
xiii. 41, xiv. 10; Val. Max. iii. 8. Ext. 2, v. 3. metre, and the rest in hexameters. The editions of
Ext. 3; Ath. iv. p. 168, x. p. 419; Heyne, Opusc. them are too numerous to mention; the titles of these
iii. pp. 346-363; Droysen, Alex. Gesch. der NachfL editions, and of the versions into Latin, German,
Alex.; Thirwall's Greece, vols. v. vi. vii.) [E. E.] French, Italian, English, and Spanish, fill seven coPHOCUS (c*Kcos). 1. A son of Ornytion of lumns of Hoffmann's Lexicon Bibliographicumn (s. v.).
Corinth, or according to others of Poseidon, is said They have, in fact, been included in all the chief
to have been the leader of a colony from Corinth collections of the lyric and gnomic poets, from that
into the territory of Tithorea and Mount Par- of Constantine Lascaris, Venet. 1494, 1495, 4to.,
nassus, which derived from him the name of down to those of Gaisford, Boissonade, SchneidePhocis. (Paus. ii. 4. ~ 3, 29. ~ 2, x. 1. ~ 1.) He win, and Bergk. Some of these collections, howis said to have cured Antiope of her madness, and ever, contain a didactic poem, in 217 hexameters,
to have made her his wife (ix. 17. ~ 4). entitled 7roilya vovOeTLKrdV, which is undoubtedly
2. A son of A eacus by the Nereid Psamathe, a forgery, made since the Christian era; but the
and husband of Asteria or Asterodia, by whom he fact of the name of Phocylides being attached to
became the father of Panopeus and Crissus. (Hes. such a composition is a proof of the estimation in
Thleog. 1094; Pind. Neso. v. 23; Tzetz. ad Lye. which he was held as a didactic poet. So also,
53, 939; Schol. ad Eurip. Or. 33.) As Phocus when Suidas states that some of his verses were
surpassed his step-brothers Telamon and Peleus in stolen from the Sibylline Oracles, the meaning is
warlike games and exercises, they being stirred up either that some genuine verses of Phocylides had
by their mother Endeis, resolved to destroy him, been preserved in that apocryphal collection, or
and Telamon, or, according to others, Peleus killed that both the Oracles and the 7roirluca,ovee'roi'r