Philarchus, a hero who gave assistance to the Phocians when the Persians invaded Greece.
Philēmon, a Greek comic poet, contemporary with Menander. He obtained some poetical prizes over Menander, not so much by the merit of his composition, as by the intrigues of his friends. Plautus imitated some of his comedies. He lived to his 97th year, and died, as it is reported, of laughing, on seeing an ass eat figs, B.C. 274.——His son, who bore the same name, wrote 54 comedies, of which some few fragments remain, which do not seem to entitle him to great rank among the Greek comic writers. Valerius Maximus, bk. 9, ch. 12—Quintilian, bk. 10.—Plutarch, de Cohibenda Ira.—Strabo, bk. 14.——A poor man of Phrygia. See: [Baucis].——An illegitimate son of Priam.
Philēne, a town of Attica between Athens and Tanagra. Statius, Thebaid, bk. 4, li. 102.
Philēris, an immodest woman, whom Philocrates the poet lampooned. Martial, bk. 7.
Philĕros, a town of Macedonia. Pliny.
Philesius, a leader of the 10,000 Greeks after the battle of Cunaxa.
Philetærus, a eunuch made governor of Pergamus by Lysimachus. He quarrelled with Lysimachus, and made himself master of Pergamus, where he laid the foundations of a kingdom called the kingdom of Pergamus, B.C. 283. He reigned there for 20 years, and at his death he appointed his nephew Eumenes as his successor. Strabo, bk. 13.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 8.——A Cretan general who revolted from Seleucus, and was conquered, &c. Polyænus, bk. 4.
Philētas, a grammarian and poet of Cos, in the reign of king Philip, and of his son Alexander the Great. He was made preceptor to Ptolemy Philadelphus. The elegies and epigrams which he wrote have been greatly commended by the ancients, and some fragments of them are still preserved in Athenæus. He was so small and slender, according to the improbable accounts of Ælian, that he always carried pieces of lead in his pockets, to prevent being blown away by the wind. Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 9, ch. 14.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 1, poem 5.—Propertius, bk. 3, poem 1.——An historian.
Philetius, a faithful steward of Ulysses, who, with Eumeus, assisted him in destroying the suitors, who had not only insulted the queen, but wasted the property of the absent monarch. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 20, &c.
Philĭdas, a friend of Pelopidas, who favoured the conspiracy formed to expel the Spartans from Thebes. He received the conspirators in his own house.