Phoenix
Frieze-Dennison Vergil
- a Phoenician; v. 1. Phoenice, A.
- a The son of Amyntor, who was given by Peleus to Achilles as a companion in the Trojan war, Ov. M. 8, 307; id. A. A. 1, 337; Cic. de Or. 3, 15; Prop. 2, 1, 60. He brought to Peleus the news of the death of Achilles, Plaut. Bacch. 1, 2, 49 (157).—
- b A son of Agenor, brother of Cadmus and Europa, Hyg. Fab. 178.
(Φοῖνιξ).
1. According to Homer the father of Europa (Hom. Il. 14.321); but according to others he was a son of Agenor by Agriope or Telephassa, and therefore a brother of Earopa. Being sent out by his father in search of his sister, who was carried off by Zeus, he went to Africa, and there gave his name to a people who were called after him Phoenices. (Apollod. 3.1. § l; Eustath. ad Dionys. Perieg. 905; Hyg. Fab. 178.) According to some traditions he became, by Perimede, the daughter of Oeneus, the farther of Astypalaea and Europa (Paus. 7.4.2), by Telephe the father of Peirus, Astypale, Europa, and Phoenice (Schol. ad Eurip. Phoen. 5), and by Alphesiboea, the father of Adonis. (Apollod. 3.14.4.)
2. A son of Amynltor by Cleobule or Hippodameia, wias king of the Dolopes, and took part not only in the Calydonian hunt (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 421; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 762; Hyg. Fab. 173 ; Ov. Met. 8.307), but being a friend of Peleus, he accompanied Achilles on his expedition against Troy. (Hyg. Fab. 257; Ov. Ep. 3.27 ; Apollod. 3.13.8.) His father Amyntor neglected his legitimate wife, and attached himself to a mistress, but the former desired her son to dishonour her rival. Phoenix yielded to the request of his mother, and Amyntor, who discovered it, cursed him, and prayed that he might never be blessed with any offspring. Phoenix now desired to quit his father's house, but his relations compelled him to remain. At last, however, he fled to Peleuis, who received him kindly, made him the ruler of the country of the Dolopes, on the frontiers of Phthiia, and entrusted to him his son Achilles, whonm he was to educate. (Hom. Il. 9.447, &c.) According to another tradition, Phoenix did not dishonour his father's mistress (Pllthia or Clytia), but she merely accused him of having made imiproper overtures to her, in consequence of which his father put out his eyes. But Peleus took himt to Cheiron, who restored to him his sight. (Apollod. 3.13.8.) Phoenix moreover is said to have called the son of Achilles Neoptolemnus, after Lycomedes had called him Pyrrhus. (Paus. 10.26, § l.) Neoptolemus was believed to have buried Phoenix at Eion in Macedonia or at Trachis in Thessaly. (Tzetz. ad Lyc. 417; Strab. ix. p.428.) it must further be observed, that Phoenix is one of the mythical beings to whom the ancients ascribed the invention of the alphabet. (Tzetz. Chil. 12.68.)
3. We must notice here the fabulous bird Phoenix, who, according to a belief which Herodotus (2.73) heard at Heliopolis in Egypt, visited that place once in every five hundred years, on his father's death, and buried him in the sanctuary of Helios. For this purpose Phoenix was believed to come fror Arabia, and to make lan egg of myrrh as large as possible; this egg he then hollowved out and put into it his father, closing it up carefully, and the egg was believed then to be of exactly the same weight as before. This bird was represented resembling an eagle, with feathers partly red and partly golden. (Comp. Achill. Tat. 3.25.) Of this bird it is further related, thai when his life drew to a close, he built a nest for himself in Arabia, to which he imparted the power of generation, so that after his death a new phoenix rose out of it. As soon as the latter was grown up, he, like his predecessor, proceeded to Heliopolis in Egypt, and burned and buried his father in the temple of Helios. (Tac. Ann. 6.28.) According to a story which has gained more currency in modern times, Phoenix, when he arrived at a very old age (some say 500 and others 1461 years), committed himself to the flames. (Lucian, De Mort. Per. 27; Philostr. Vit. Apollon. 3.49.) Others, again, state that only one Phoenix lived at a time, and that when he died a worm crept forth from his body, and was developed into a new Phoenix by the heat of the sun. His death, further, took place in Egypt after a life of 7006 years. (Tzetz. Chil. 5.397, &c.; Plin. Nat. 10.2; Ov. Met. 15.392, &c.) Another modification of the same story relates, that when Phoenix arrived at the age of 500 years, he built for himself a funeral pile, consisting of spices, settled upon it, and died. Out of the decomposing body he then rose again, and having grown up, he wrapped the remains of his old body up in myrrh, carried them to Heliopolis, and burnt them there. (Pompon. Mela, 3.8, in fin.; Stat. Silv. 2.4. 36.) Similar stories of marvellous birds occur in many parts of the East, as in Persia, the legend of the bird Simorg, and in India of the bird Semendar. (Comp. Bochart, Hieroz. iii. p. 809.) [L.S]
(Φοῖνιξ), historical.
1. A Theban, who was one of the leaders in the insurrection against Alexander, on which account the king, when he appeared before the city, sent to demand his surrender, together with Prothytas. The Thebans treated the request with derision, and demanded in return that Alexander should give up to them Philotas and Antipater. (Plut. Alex. 11.)
2. A native of Tenedos, who held a high rank in the army of Eumenes, B. C. 321. In the great battle fought by the latter against Craterus and Neoptolemus, the command of the left wing, which was opposed to Craterus, was entrusted to Phoenix and Pharnabazus, and composed principally of Asiatic troops; Eumnenes being apprehensive of opposing any Macedonians to a general so popular with his countrymen. As soon as they came in sight of the enemy the two commanders charged the army of Craterus, which was unable to withstand the shock, and the aged general himself perished in the confusion (Plut. Erum. 7). Shortly after we find Phoenix despatched by Eumenes with a select force against his revolted general Perdiccas, whom he surprised by a rapid night march, and tools him prisoner almost without opposition (Diod. 18.40). After the fall of Eumenes Phoenix appears to have entered the service of Antirgonus, but in B. C. 310 he was persuaded by Ptolemy (the nephew and general of the killg of Asia), to whom he was attached by the closest friendship, to join the latter in his defection from Antigonus. Phoenix at this time held the important command of the Hellespontine Phrygia, on which account Antigonus hastened to send an army against him under the command of his younger son Philippus (Id. 20.19). Thle result of the operations is not mentioned; but Phoenix seems to have been not only pardoned by Antigonus, but received again into favour : and in the campaign which preceded the battle of Issus (B. C. 302), we find him holding the command of Sardis, which he was, however, induced to surrender to Prepelaus, the general of Lysimachus (Id. 20.107). This is the last time his name is mentioned.
3. The youngest son of Antigonus, king of Asia, is called by Diodorus in one passage (20.73), Phoenix, but it seems that this is a mistake, and that his true name was Philip. (Comp. Diod. 20.19; and see Droysen, Hellenism. vol. i. p. 465.) [Philippus, No. 17.] [E.H.B]
(Φοῖνιξ), of Colophon, a choliambic poet, of unknown time, of whose poems Athenaeus preserves some fragments, the chief of which is in ridicule of the arts of certain beggars, who demanded alms in the name of a raven which they carried about on their hands. (Bode, Geseh. d. Lyr. Dichtk. vol. i. p. 337; Meineke, Choliamb. Poes. Graec. pp. 140-145.) [P.S]
(Φοῖνιξ), a statuary, of unknown country, was the pupil of Lysippus, and therefore tlourished about Ol. 120, B. C. 300. He made a celebrated statue of the Olympic victor boxing, Epitherses. (Plin. Nat. 34.8. s. 19.20 ; Paus. 6.15.3.) [P.S]
PHOENIX (Φοίνιξ).
1.A river of Malis, flowing into the Asopus, S. of the latter, and at the distance of 15 stadia from Thermopylae. (Hdt. 7.198; Strab. 9. p. 428; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. 2. p. 32.)
2.A river of Thessaly, flowing into the Apidanus. (Vibius Sequest. p. 16; Plin. Nat. 4.8. s. 15; Lucan (Luc. 6.374; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. 4. p. 515.)
3.A small river of Achaia. [Vol. 1. 13b.]
(Φοίνιξ). Son of Amyntor, king of Argos, and the preceptor of Achilles, to whom he was so attached that he accompanied him to the Trojan War. According to the Homeric account (Il. ix. 447 foll.), Amyntor, having transferred his affections from his lawful wife, Hippodamia, to a concubine, the former besought her son Phoenix to gain the affections of his father's mistress, and alienate her from Amyntor. Phoenix succeeded in his suit, and his enraged father imprecated upon him the bitterest curses. The son, therefore, notwithstanding the entreaties and efforts of his relations to detain him at his parent's court, fled to Phthia, in Thessaly, where he was kindly received by Peleus, monarch of the country, who assigned him a territory on the confines of Phthia and the sway over the Dolopians. He intrusted him also with the education of his son Achilles.
Later writers, however, make Amyntor to have put out his son's eyes, and the latter to have fled in this condition to Peleus, who led him to Chiron, and persuaded the Centaur to restore him to sight. There was a play entitled Phoenix by Sophocles, another by Euripides, and a third by Ion.
After the death of Achilles, Phoenix, who had gone with him to the Trojan War, was one of those commissioned to return to Greece and bring young Pyrrhus to the war. On the fall of Troy he returned with that prince to Thessaly, in which country he continued to reside until his death.
(Φοίνιξ). (1) A harbour in Crete. See Phoenicus.
(2) A river in Malis.
(3) A river in the north of Thessaly.