Now I will believe That there are unicorns; that in Arabia There is one tree, the phœnix’ throne; one phœnix At this hour reigning there. Shakespeare, _The Tempest_, act iii. sc. 3 (1609). =Phorcus=, “the old man of the sea.” He had three daughters, with only one eye and one tooth between ’em.--_Greek Mythology._ This is not “the old man of the sea” mentioned in the _Arabian Nights_ (“Sindbad the Sailor”). =Phor´mio=, a parasite, who is “all things to all men.”--Terence, _Phormio_. =Phosphor=, the light-bringer or morning star; also called _Hespĕrus_, and by Homer and Hesiod _Heôs-phŏros_. Bright Phosphor, fresher for the night, Sweet Hesper-Phosphor, double name. Tennyson, _In Memoriam_, cxxi. (1850). =Phos´phorus=, a knight called by Tennyson “Morning Star,” but, in the _History of Prince Arthur_, “Sir Persaunt of India, or the Blue Knight.” One of the four brothers who kept the passages to Castle Perilous.--Tennyson, _Idylls_ (“Gareth and Lynette”); Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 131 (1470). ⁂ It is evidently a blunder to call the _Blue_ Knight “Morning Star,” and the _Green_ Knight “Evening Star.” In the old romance, the combat with the “Green Knight,” is at dawn, and with the “Blue Knight” at nightfall. The error arose from not bearing in mind that our forefathers began the day with the preceding eve, and ended it at sunset. =Phraortes= (3 _syl._), a Greek admiral.--Sir W. Scott, _Count Robert of Paris_ (time, Rufus). =Phry´ne= (2 _syl._), an Athenian courtezan of surpassing beauty. Apellês’s celebrated picture of “Venus Anadyomĕnê” was drawn from Phrynê, who entered the sea with hair dishevelled for a model. The “Cnidian Venus” of Praxitĕlês was also taken from the same model. Some say Campaspê was the academy figure of the “Venus Anadyomenê.” Pope has a poem called _Phryne_. =Phyllis=, a Thracian, who fell in love with Demoph´oön. After some months of mutual affection, Demophoon was obliged to sail for Athens, but promised to return within a month. When a month had elapsed, and Demophoon did not put in an appearance, Phyllis so mourned for him that she was changed into an almond tree, hence called by the Greeks _Phylia_. In time, Demophoon returned, and, being told the fate of Phyllis, ran to embrace the tree, which though bare and leafless at the time, was instantly covered with leaves, hence called _Phylla_ by the Greeks. Let Demophoon tell Why Phyllis by a fate untimely fell. Ovid, _Art of Love_, iii. _Phyllis_, a country girl in Virgil’s third and fifth _Eclogues_. Hence a rustic maiden. Also spelt Phillis (_q.v._). _Phyllis_, in Spenser’s eclogue, _Colin Clout’s Come Home Again_, is Lady Carey, wife of Sir George Carey (afterwards Lord Hunsdon, 1596). Lady Carey was Elizabeth, the second of the six daughters of Sir John Spenser, of Althorpe, ancestor of the noble houses of Spenser and Marlborough.