Phocus in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Phocus

8 passages from 2 ancient authors that tell of Phocus, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. Phocus was the son of King Aeacus of Aegina and the Nereid Psamathe. Psamathe was chased by Aeacus and tried to evade him by transforming into a seal;... For the story in one place, read our article on Phocus.

Ovid (2)

Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.658–791Cephalus and ProcrisCephalus tells how he married Procris, and how Eos (Aurora), the goddess of dawn, saw him on Mount Hymettus and fell in love with him. She tried to part him from Procris by suggesting that his wife might not be true, and Cephalus, disguised, tests her and tempts her with gifts. Procris yields, and then flees in shame when he reveals himself, and the two are reconciled after she brings him gifts, a hound and a spear that never miss. The hound, chasing a monstrous fox, is turned to stone with it.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.266–409Peleus, Ceyx and the wolfPeleus, exiled for killing his half-brother Phocus, comes to the court of Ceyx at Trachis, where he is received kindly. Ceyx tells him of his brother Daedalion, who was turned into a hawk after the death of his daughter Chione. A herdsman brings word that a huge wolf is ravaging Peleus' cattle, and the sea-goddess Psamathe, who sent it, at last turns it to marble at the pleading of Thetis. Peleus goes on to Magnesia, where King Acastus purifies him.

Pausanias (6)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.29.1–11Epidaurus and Aegina: the Aeaceum and the stories of Aeacus and PhocusPausanias lists the temples and images of Epidaurus city and moves to Aegina, tracing the island’s legends from Zeus and Aegina to Aeacus, the descendants of Aeacus who went elsewhere, and its rise to naval power. He describes the Aeaceum with the relief of the envoys who begged Aeacus to end the drought, and the grave of Phocus, killed by Peleus’ quoit throw. He also notes the Secret Harbour and Telamon’s mole, and the theatre and stadium.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.17.1–7Thebes: Artemis of Good Fame, the Girder Athenas and the tomb of Zethus and AmphionPausanias describes the temple of Artemis of Good Fame, where the daughters of Antipoenus died to win victory over the Orchomenians, and the stone lion dedicated by Hercules. He notes the pyre of Amphion's children, the two Athenas surnamed Girder and the common tomb of Zethus and Amphion. The people of Tithorea try to steal earth from that mound to bring fertility to their own land, a belief based on the oracles of Bacis, who calls it the tomb of Phocus because Antiope was healed and married by Phocus.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.30.1–9Delphi: Polygnotus' painting of the underworld (3): the daughters of Pandareos, Phocus, Orpheus and ThamyrisPausanias continues the underworld painting with the daughters of Pandareos, Antilochus, Agamemnon, Protesilaus, Achilles and Patroclus, and Phocus giving a signet to Iaseus. He describes Maera, Actaeon with his mother and hound, and Orpheus seated in the grove of Proserpine beside the willows and Promedon. He ends with Schedius, Pelias, the blind Thamyris with his broken lyre and Marsyas teaching Olympus to play the flute.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.1.1–11Phocis: its boundaries and the Phocian victories over the ThessaliansPausanias explains how Phocis got its name from Phocus and describes its boundaries, from Cirrha and Anticyra to the Locrians. He tells how the Phocians beat the Thessalians with buried water-pots at Hyampolis and then, after Delphi's oracle, with a desperate stand under the soothsayer Tellias, which gave rise to the phrase 'Phocian despair'. A later night attack in chalk-white armour won a second victory.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.32.1–19Delphi to Tithorea: the Corycian cave, other great caves and the shrine of IsisPausanias ends Delphi with the theatre and stadium and goes up Parnassus to the Corycian cave, comparing it with caves in Phrygia and Magnesia. He then describes Tithorea, once called Neon, with its grove of Athena and the tomb of Antiope and Phocus, and the temple of Aesculapius the Founder. He describes in detail the sacred enclosure of Isis, her twice-yearly festival and fair, and tells of those who died after entering the shrine, and the oil of Tithorea.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.4.1–7Corinth: Athena the Bridler, the kings of Corinth and the road up to Acro-CorinthNear the tomb of Medea’s children is the sanctuary of Athena the Bridler, which leads Pausanias to Bellerophon and Pegasus and to the lineage of Corinth’s kings from Sisyphus to the Dorian Aletes, the Bacchids and the tyrant Cypselus. He describes the theatre, the Daedalic Hercules, the spring Lerna and the temples of Zeus and Asclepius, and the shrines of Isis, Serapis, the Mother of the Gods, the Fates, Demeter and Bunaean Hera on the way up to Acro-Corinth.