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PHER'ME, or Ferme, in ancient geography, a moun¬ 
tain of Egypt, in the Thebaid, which is faid to have.been 
the abode of Paul the Hermit. ’ 
PHE'RON, a king of Egypt, who fucceeded Sefoffris. 
He was blind ; and he recovered his fight by walhing his 
eyes, according to the directions of the oracle, in the 
urine of a woman who had never had any unlawful con¬ 
nection. He tried his wife firft, but the appeared to have 
been faithlefs to his bed, and (lie was burnt with all thofe 
whofe urine could not reftore fight to the king. He mar¬ 
ried the woman whofe urine proved beneficial. Herodotus, 
ii. hi. 
PHERO'NIA, a town on the eaft fide of the ifland of 
Sardinia, between the mouth of the river Ccedrus and the 
town of Olbia. Ptolemy. 
PHERRA'CIA, a town of Afia, in the Colchide. 
Strabo. 
PHERVINTER'SKOI, a cape of Ruflia, on the eaft 
coaft of Nova Zembla. Lat. 77. 30. fJ. Ion. 77. 14. E. 
PHES'TE, in ancient geography, a town of the ifland 
of Cyprus, fituated on the fea-coaft, in the fouthern part, 
according to Diodorus Siculus; but Dionyfius Periegetes 
places it in the interior of the ifland, near Gortyna. 
PHES'TI, a place of Italy, in Latium, at the extremity 
of the territory belonging to the city of Rome ; where, 
according to Strabo, the priefts offered the lacrifices 
called “ Ambarvalia.” 
PHEUGA'RUM, a town of Germany, between Tuli- 
furgium and Canduum. Ptolemy. 
PHI'AL, or Vial, /. [phiula, Lat. phiole, Fr. from 
pixXn, Gr. which appears to have originated from 
vaXoi, glafs; the digamma F or <p having been pre¬ 
fixed to the word in order to reprefentthe harfh accented 
vowel v at the beginning. The reader knows that Ph, F, 
and V, and fometimes B, are often employed to denote 
that afpiration. The phial, or vial, therefore, muff ex- 
clufively mean] A fmall glafs bottle.—He proves his 
explications by experiments made with a phial of water, 
and with globes of glafs filled with water. Newton. 
Upon my fecure hour thy uncle dole 
With juice of curfed hebenon in a phial. Shakefpeare. 
Phial (Leyden.) See the article Electricity, vol. vi. 
p. 411. 
To PHIAL, v. a. [from the noun.] To keep in-a phial. 
Heaven fearch my foul! and if through all its cells 
Lurk the pernicious drop of poifonous guile. 
Full on my fencelefs head its phiall'd wrath 
May fate exhauft! Shenjlone's Love and Honour. 
PHIA'LA, in ancient geography, a fountain or lake at 
the foot of Mount Hermon, which, according to Jofephus, 
was one of the two fources of the Jordan : he fays, that 
it ran by fubterraneous canals, and then, gufhing out of 
the earth, joined the other at the town of Dan. 
PHIA'LIA. See Phigalia. 
PHIDA'LIA, a fmall port of Thrace, upon the Thra¬ 
cian Bofphorus, towards the fouth-eaft of the gulf Leo- 
ilenius. A fmall river runs into this port. 
PHID'IAS, an Athenian, the molt celebrated fculptor 
of antiquity, flourilhed about B. C. 440—50. He is faid 
to have been originally a painter. His diftinguilhing 
character was grandeur and fublimity, and he particularly 
ftudied optical effeft. To this purpofe it is related, that 
having, in competition with Alcamenes, made a ftatue of 
Minerva to be placed upon a column, the work of the 
latter appeared fo finilhed when viewed on the ground, 
that it was univerfally admired, whillt that of Phidias 
feemed only a rough lketch ; but, when both were thown 
from the deftined fituation, the beauty of the firft was 
loft, while the fecond produced the moft ftriking effect. 
After the battle of Marathon, he converted a block of 
marble, which the Perfians had brought for a trophy of 
their expefled viitory, into a fine ftatue of Nemelis, the 
goddefs of vengeance. His reputation was fo high at 
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Athens, that Pericles appointed him fuperintendantof all 
the public edifices with which that city was decorated 
during his adminiftration. He was the intimate friend 
of that great ftatefman 5 and calumny accufed him of 
making his houfe a place of afiignation for the amours of 
Pericles. One of his greateft performances was a coloffal 
ftatue of Minerva in the temple called Parthenon. It was 
twenty-fix cubits high, and was made of gold and ivory, 
or more probably overlaid with thofe materials. In this 
work he difplayed his flcill in minute fculpture, no lefs 
than his grandeur of ftyle in the main figure. On the 
convexity of the goddefs’s thield was reprefented the 
battle of the Amazons; and on its concavity the combat 
of the gods with the giants; whilft her flippers were 
adorned with the fight of the Centaurs and Lapithte. 
On her breaft-plate was a Medufa’s head. The bafe con-, 
tained the birth of Pandora, with twenty figures of gods. 
Indeed, Phidias is faid by Pliny to have been the firft who 
brought to perfection the lorcuma, orbas-relief. His fame 
and fortune excited envy; and Menon, one of his work¬ 
men, publicly accufed him of having embezzled part of 
the gold employed in this ftatue. By the advice of Pe¬ 
ricles he had applied the gold in fuch a manner that it 
might be taken off without injuring the work, which was 
accordingly done, and the weight was found exaft. He 
was then charged with having introduced the portraits of 
Pericles and himfelf in the battle of the Amazons ; and, 
this being regarded as a kind of profanation, he was 
thrown into prifon ; where, according to Plutarch, he 
died. Others, however, affirm that he efcaped to Elis, 
where he afterwards executed his Olympian Jupiter, the 
moft famous piece of fculpture in all antiquity. It was 
a coloffal ftatue of fixty feet, of incomparable majefty and 
dignity in its attitude and expreffion. Its materials 
were likewife gold and ivory; and it was enriched with 
numerous figures in bas-relief. The name of the artift 
was engraved on the bafe. The Eleans, in gratitude for 
a performance which ranked among the wonders of 
Greece, fettled upon his defendants a perpetual office, 
the foie duty of which was to preferve the luftre of this 
ftatue. Plutarch in Peric’e. 
PHIDIP'PIDES, a celebrated courier, who ran from 
Athens to Lacedaemon, about 151 Englifh miles, in two 
days, to afk of the Lacedaemonians affiftance againft the 
Perfians. The Athenians raifed a temple to his memory. 
Herodot. C. Nep. in Milt. 
PHIDI'TIA, f. [Gr. from (pit&op.ai , I ufe fparingly.] 
Feafts inftituted by Lycurgus, and celebrated with great 
frugality at Lacedaemon. 
The Phiditia were held in the public places, and in the 
open air: rich and poor affifted at them alike, and on the 
fame footing; their defign being to keep up peace, friend- 
fhip, and good underftanding and equality, among the ci¬ 
tizens, great and fmall. Bernegger fays, they who at¬ 
tended this feaft, brought each a bufliel of flour, eight 
meafures of wine, five pounds of cheefe, and half as much 
figs. The Phiditia of the Greeks were much the fame 
with the Chariftia at Rome. 
PHI'DON, a man who enjoyed the fovereign power at 
Argos, and is fuppofed to have invented feales and mea¬ 
fures, and coined iilverat ZEgina. He died B.C. 854. 
PHIGA'LIA, or Phialia, in ancient geography, a 
town of Arcadia, upon a high and craggy rock, near the 
river Lymax, and fouth-weftof Megalopolis. This town, 
being the key of Arcadia, appeared fo defirable a poffcffion 
to the Lacedaemonians, that they laid fiege to it, and took 
it in the year 659 B. C. The Phigalians, defirous of re¬ 
gaining it, confulted the oracle of Delphos, who directed 
them to procure a hundred chofen men from Oreftafium 
to accompany them in their expedition. Nevertheleis, 
thefe brave men perilhed in the attempt. The Oreftafians, 
however, in concert with the Phigalians, attacked their 
enemies, and made a great flaughterof the Lacedaemonians, 
who all periihed, except fome few, who faved themfeives 
by flight. 
In 
