78 
P H E 
Arcadia. According to Paufanius, it was the fource of 
the river Ladon; and, according to Cicero (de Nat. Deor.) 
its waters were unw'holefome in the night, but wholefome 
in the day-time. 
PHEN'GITES. See the article Mineralogy, vol. xv. 
p. 449. 
PHEN'ICE, a port of the ifland of Crete, to the weft 
of the ifland. St. Paul having anchored at Phenice, 
when he was carried to Rome, (A£ts xxvii. 12.) advifed 
the (hip’s crew to fpend the winter there, becaufe the 
feafon was too far advanced fpr them to proceed. 
PHENPCIA. See Phcenicia. 
PHEN'ICOPTER, f. [ phenicopterus , Lat.] The fla¬ 
mingo. See Phcenicofterus. —He blended together 
the livers of guiltheads, the brains of pheafants and pea¬ 
cocks, tongues of phenicoptcrs, and the melts of lampreys. 
Halieivill on Providence. 
PHE'NIX, f. [<pom|, Gr. phanix , Lat.] The bird 
which is fuppofed to exift (ingle, and to rife again from 
its own allies. See Phcenix. —Having the idea of a 
phenix in my mind, the firft enquiry is, w’hether fuch a 
thing does exift ? Locke. 
There is one tree, the plicnix throne ; one phenix 
At this hour reigning there. Shakefpeare's Tempejl. 
PHENOMENON, /. See Phenomenon, p. 34. 
PHEN'TERER, or Pheuterer. SeeFEUTERER. 
PHE'ON, f. in heraldry, the barbed iron head of a 
dart. 
PHE'OS, f. in botany, a name which Theophraftus, 
Djofcorides, and others, give to a plant ufed by fullers 
in drtfling their cloths, and of which there were two 
kinds ; a fmaller called Amply pheus, and a larger called 
hippophecs. This plant is fometimes called phleos; and is 
thus confounded with a kind of marfli-cudweed, or Gna- 
phalium, called alfo by that name ; but it may always be 
difeovered which of the two plants an author means, by 
ebferving the fer.fe in which the word is ufed, and the ufe 
to which the plant was put. The phleos properly fo 
called, that is, the cudweed, was ufed to fluff beds and 
other fuch things, and to pack up with earthen vefiels 
to prevent their breaking; but the plieos, improperly 
called phleos, only about cloths: this was, however, alfo 
call eAJlcche and cnaphon. 
PHE'RAi, in ancient geography, a river of thePelopon- 
nefus, below the river Pamifus, in the gulf of Meflenia. 
—Alfo, a town of Theflaly, on the confines of the Pelaf- 
giotide, towards Magnefia and the Phtiotide. It was 
Ctuated on the left bank of a fmall river called Naurus, 
towards the fouth-eaft of the lake Bcebeis. According to 
Strabo, it had a port on the Pelafgic gulf, called Pagafes. 
This town, in the time of Philip, father of Alexander, 
occupied a conflderable rank in Theflaly, as Alexander, 
who was its king, and whom the Greek authors denomi¬ 
nate a tyrant^ had fubjedled to his dominion feveral towns 
of Theflaly. The Theflalians implored fuccour of Philip, 
who defeated him, and foon after he was put to death by 
his own wife. Alexander was alfo called Pheraus, from 
having been king of Pherae ; fo was Jafcn, becaufe he 
was born there. 
PHEREC'RATES, a Greek comic poet, was contem¬ 
porary with Eupolis and Ariftophanes, about B. C. 420. 
He W'as in high reputation ; and, notwithftanding the 
licence of the old comedy, which permitted the introduc¬ 
tion of real and living charadlers on the ftage, he is faid 
never to have injured or defamed any one. He wrote in 
the utmoft Attic purity of ftyle; and was the inventor 
of a meafure called the Pherecratian, confiding of the 
three laft feet of an hexameter, the firft being invariably 
a fpondee. Horace’s line “ Quamvis Pontica pinus” is 
an example of it. The titles of (everal of his comedies 
have been preferved, with a few fragments, principally in 
Athenaeus. They have been colledled by Heftelius and 
Grotius, the latter of whom has given elegant Latin 
P H E 
tranflations of them. Mr. Cumberland has tranflated 
three paflages in his Obferver, N° 78. one of which 
gives a ftriking idea of the comic extravagance of his 
paintings. A fragment of his, relative to ancient mufic, 
cited by Plutarch, has been particularly examined by M. 
Burette in the Mem. of the Academy of Infcriptions. 
PHERE'CYDES, a Grecian philofopher, and the firft 
preceptor of Pythagoras, who fiouriflied about the 45th 
Olympiad, or B. C. 600, was a native of the ifland of 
Scyros, one of the Cyclades near Delos. Some writers 
have maintained that he derived his principles of philo- 
fophy and theogony from the facred books of the Phoe¬ 
nicians ; but upon enquiry it will appear, that the tenets 
aferibed to him referable as nearly thofe of the ancient 
Grecian philofophers as the doftrines of the Phoeni¬ 
cians ; Jofephus advances the opinion, that he ftudied 
philofophy in Egypt; which feems not improbable ; r for 
that country was in his time univerfally reforted to as 
the feat of learning. Among other marvellous ftories 
which are related concerning him, it is faid, that one day 
obferving a (hip at a diftance in full fail, bending its 
courfe towards the harbour, he predicted that it would 
never reach it; and the event turned out accordingly, as 
a ftorm arofe, which funk the veflel. At another time, 
after drinking fome water from a well, he predicted an 
earthquake, which happened three days afterwards. 
Admitting the truth of thele ftories, it is eafy to account 
for fuch predictions, without having recourfe to the fuppo- 
fition of the fuperftitious, that the author poflefied any 
lupernatural (kill; fince they may have been the refult 
of a careful obfervation of thofe phsenomena which com¬ 
monly precedeftorms, or earthquakes, in a country where 
they frequently happen ; and it is not improbable that 
Pherecydes, as is W'ell known to have been the cafe with 
others of the ancient philofophers, and particularly with 
his pupil Pythagoras, availed himfelf of his fuperior 
knowledge of nature to impofe upon the ignorant multi¬ 
tude, by pretending to powers which he did not poflefs. 
Pherecydes is faid to have been the firft among the Gre¬ 
cians who wrote concerning the nature of the gods; by 
which expreflion could only be meant, that he was the 
firft who wrote upon that fnbjeCl in profe, fince, before 
his time, Orpheus, Mufasus, and others, had written 
theogonies in verfe. Some have aferibed to him the in¬ 
vention of the fun-dial, which was unqueftionably of a 
much earlier date ; for mention is made of this inftrument 
in the hiftory of Hezekiah king of Judah, as we find it in 
2 Kings, ch. xx. Pherecydes died at the age of eighty- 
§ve. As fo the vulgar (lory of his having been conlumed 
gradually for his impiety, by theloathfome difeafe called 
morbus pedicularis, it appears to be entitled to no higher 
credit than the other idle tales by which the ignorant 
and fuperftitious have endeavoured to bring philofophy 
into contempt. 
From the fymbolical manner in which Pherecydes de¬ 
livered his opinions, and the very few memoirs of him 
which remain, it is difficult to form any accurate idea of 
his doftrines. He probably believed in an eternal Firft 
Caufe of all things ; and in the immortality of the foul: 
according to Cicero, he was the firft philofopher in whofe 
writings this dodlrineappeared. He is faid to have taught 
the belief of the tranfmigration of the foul: this is pro¬ 
bably true, it being a tenet commonly received among 
the Egyptians, and afterwards taught by Pythagoras, who 
was a pupil of Pherecydes. Enfield's Hifi. Phil. 
PHEREN'DIS, in ancient geography, a town of Afia, 
in Greater Armenia, eaft of the Tigris, between Sias and 
Triganocerta. 
PHEREPHAT'TIA, f. in antiquity, a feftival at Cy- 
zicum, wherein a black heifer was facrificed to Phere- 
phatta, or Proferpine. 
PHERETI'MA, the wife of Battus king of Cyrene, 
and the mother of Arcefilaus. See the article Cyrenaica, 
vol. v. p. 547. 
PHER'ME, 
