in botany: A genus of the decandria order, belonging to the diadelphia class of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 32nd order, Papilionaceæ. The legumen is semibilocular.

PHÆA, a famous sow which infested the neighbourhood of Cromyon. Theseus destroyed it as he was travelling from Troëzen to Athens to make himself known to his father. Some imagine that the boar of Calydon sprang from this sow. According to some authors, Phæa was a woman who prostituted herself to strangers, whom she murdered, and afterwards plundered.

PHÆACIA, one of the names of the island Corcyra, (Homer, Stephanus). Phœaces the people, (Ovid), noted for their indolence and luxury: hence Horace uses Phœax for a person indolent and sleek; and hence arose their insolence and pride, (Aristotle). The island was famous for producing large quantities of the finest flavoured apples, (Ovid, Juvenal, Propertius).

PHÆDON, a disciple of Socrates, who had been seized by pirates in his youth; and the philosopher, who seemed to discover something uncommon and promising in his countenance, bought his liberty for a sum of money, and ever after esteemed him. Phædon, after Socrates's death, returned to Elis his native country, where he founded a sect of philosophers who composed what was called the Elaic school. The name of Phædon is affixed to one of Plato's dialogues.

PHÆDRA (fab. hist.) was a daughter of Minos and Pasiphaë; she married Theseus, by whom she was the mother of Acamas and Demophon. They had already lived for some time in conjugal felicity, when Venus, who hated all the descendants of Apollo, because he had discovered her amours with Mars, inspired Phædra with the strongest passion for Hippolytus the son of Theseus, by the amazon Hippolyte. This passion she long attempted to stifle, but in vain; and therefore, in the absence of Theseus, she addressed Hippolytus with all the impatience of despoothing love. He rejected her with horror and disdain. She, however, incensed by the reception she had met, resolved to punish his coldness and refusal; and at the return of Theseus she accused Hippolytus of attempts upon her virtue. He listened to her accusation; and without hearing Hippolytus's defence, he banished him from his kingdom, and implored Neptune, who had promised to grant three of his requests, to punish him in an exemplary manner. As Hippolytus fled from Athens, his horses were suddenly terrified by a sea monster, which Neptune had sent on the shore; and he was thus dragged through precipices and over rocks, trampled under the feet of his horses, and crushed under the wheels of his chariot. When his tragic end was known at Athens, Phædra confessed her crime, and hung herself. self in despair, unable to survive one whose death her extreme guilt had occasioned. The death of Hippolytus, and the infamous passion of Phaedra, is the subject of one of the tragedies of Euripides and of Seneca. She was buried at Troezen, where her tomb was still to be seen in the age of the geographer Pausanias, near the temple of Venus, which he had built to render the goddess favourable to her incestuous passion. Near her tomb was a myrtle, whose leaves were full of small holes, which, it was reported, Phaedra had done with a hair pin, when the vehemence of her passion had rendered her melancholy and almost desperate. She was represented in a painting in Apollo's temple at Delphi, as suspended in the air, while her sister Ariadne stood near to her, and fixed her eyes upon her.

PHÆDRUS, an ancient Latin writer, who composed five books of fables, in iambic verse. He was a Thracian; and was born, as there is reason to conclude, some years before Julius Caesar made himself master of the Roman empire. How he came into the service of Augustus is not known: but his being called Augustus' freedman in the title of the book, shows that he had been that emperor's slave. The fables of Phædrus are valued for their wit and good sense, expressed in very pure and elegant language; and it is remarkable that they remained buried in libraries altogether unknown to the public, until they were discovered and published by Peter Pithou, or Pittheus, a learned French gentleman, toward the close of the 16th century.

Phædrus (Thomas) was a professor of eloquence at Rome, early in the 16th century. He was canon of Lateran, and keeper of the library in the Vatican. He owed his rise to the acting of Seneca's Hippolitus, in which he performed the part of Phaedra; from whence he ever after got the name of Phædrus. Erasmus, who tells this, says he had it from cardinal Raphael Georgianus, in whose court-yard, before the palace, that tragedy was acted. The cause of his death was very remarkable; for as he was riding through the city on a mule, he met a cart drawn by wild oxen, and was thrown by his mule, who took fright at them. Though corpulent, the cart fortunately passed over him without doing him any hurt, as he fell in the space between the wheels; but fright and the fall together spoiled the whole mass of his blood so much, that he contracted a distemper, of which, after languishing some time, he died under the age of 50. If he had lived, he would most probably have become an author; and perhaps, adds Bayle, have confirmed what has been observed of him, that his tongue was better than his pen. The observation was made by Erasmus, who tells us, that he knew and loved him; and owns that he was called the Cicero of his time. Janus Parrhasius, his colleague, was much grieved at his death, and gave the titles of several works, which were almost ready for public view.

PHÆNOMENON, in philosophy, denotes any remarkable appearance, whether in the heavens or earth, and whether discovered by observation or experiment.