Phaon

Phaon (Greek Φάων , Pháōn , "the shining one") is a figure in Greek mythology . Working as a ferryman between the island of Lesbos and Asia Minor , he is characterized by his extraordinary physical beauty. His irresistible appeal makes him a popular figure in Attic comedy , who owes the earliest evidence of Phaon. He is the eponymous hero of a comedy by the playwright Plato , preserved in fragments , in which he is swarmed by hordes of lovesick women.

Phaon (with the caption "Phaon is beautiful") and a young woman in love on an Attic red-figure calyx crater , around 410 BC. Chr. (Detail)

Relationship with Aphrodite

According to an early tradition that first appeared in the 5th century BC. Chr. Is attested in Kratinos and shows parallels to the Adonis myth , the love goddess Aphrodite falls in love with the young Phaon and hides him in lettuce or young barley in order to have him all to herself. Other authors derive Phaon's youthful beauty from a wonderful ointment with which Aphrodite rewarded the already old ferryman for translating it for free - in ignorance of her true identity.

Relationship with the poet Sappho and the island of Leukas

The comedy poet Menander (late 4th century BC) was the first to mention in his Leukadia the unfortunate love of the poet Sappho , who is also based in Lesbos, for Phaon, which culminated in the suicide of Sapphos, who took place at Cape Leukatas (today Cape Doukatou) the southwest tip of the western Greek island of Leukas falls from the cliff. The common reference of both figures to Lesbos is probably the starting point for this legend, which links the fate of a mythical and a historical figure. In ancient times Phaon was considered to be the founder of an Aphrodite shrine on Leukas. There was also a sanctuary of Apollo , whose customs provided for the offering of expiatory offerings ( pharmakoi ), during which a criminal was thrown from the cliff. The story of the Sappho suicide must also be seen against the background of this ritual.

literature

• Franz Stoessl : Phaon. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XIX, 2, Stuttgart 1938, Sp. 1790-1795.
• Gratia Berger-Doer:  Phaon . In: Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). Volume VII, Zurich / Munich 1994, pp. 364-367.
• Lutz Käppel : Phaon. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 9, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01479-7 , column 736 f.

proof

1. ↑ Menander Leukadia Frg. 258 marks
2. ↑ This subject was often brought to the opera stage, especially in the 19th century, cf. List in the article Sappho .
3. ↑ Strabo 10.2.9 p. 452