Phaon

• A youth of Lesbos beloved by Sappho without return, Ov. H. 15, 11; Plin. 22, 8, 9, § 20; Mart. 10, 35, 18.—As a prov. of coldness, Plaut. Mil. 4, 6, 32 (1247).—
• II Phăon, ontis, m., a freedman of the emperor Nero, Suet. Ner. 48 and 49.

(Φάντων), the celebrated favourite of the poetess Sappho. He was a boatman at Mytilene, and already at an advanced age and of ugly appearance ; but on one occasion he very willingly, and without accepting payment, carried Aphrodite across the sea, for which the goddess gave him youth and beauty. After this Sappho is said to have fallen in love with him. (Aelian, Ael. VH 12.18; Palaeph. 49; Lucian, Dial. Mort. 9; comp. Sappho.) [L.S]

a freedman of the emperor Nero, in whose villa in the neighbourhood of the city Nero took refuge, when the people rose against him, and where he met his death A. D. 68. (Suet. Nero 48, 49; D. C. 63.28; Aur. Vict. Epit. 5.)

(Φαών), one of the most ancient of the Greek physicians, who must have lived in or before the fifth century B. C., as he was either a contemporary or predecessor of Hippocrates. He was one of the persons to whom some of the ancient critics attributed the treatise Περὶ Διαίτης ʽπριεινῆς, De Salubri Vic/ts Ratione, which forms part of the Hippocratic Collection. [Hippocrates, p. 486a.] (Galen, Cozimment in Hippoer. "De Vict. Rat. in Morb. Acut." 1.17, vol. xv. p. 455.) [W. A. G.]

(Φάων). A boatman at Mitylené who is said to have been originally an ugly old man; but in consequence of his carrying Aphrodité across the sea without accepting payment, the goddess gave him youth and beauty. After this Sappho is said to have fallen in love with him, and to have leaped from the Leucadian rock, when he slighted her. See Sappho.