Philaeus (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Philaeus (Ancient Greek: Φιλαῖος, romanized: Philaîos) is a minor figure, a prince of the Molossians, who was transformed into a bird by the will of Zeus, the god of justice, in order to escape a fiery death.

Philaeus was one of the sons of the Molossian king Munichus by his wife Lelante. He had two brothers, Alcander and Megaletor, and a sister named Hyperippe.

The entire family was seen as just and righteous and therefore especially favored by the gods. One day raiders attacked them in the fields; the family ran off to their house and began to throw various objects at them in self-defense, whereupon the offenders set the house ablaze. The god of justice, Zeus would not let his favourites suffer such a cruel and undeserving death that he changed them all six of them into various birds in order to save them from the flames; Philaeus became a 'dog bird', an entirely unidentifiable avian creature.^[1][2][3]

• Artemiche
• Erodius
• Hippodamia

• Antoninus Liberalis, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992). Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Celoria, Francis (1992). The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis: A Translation with a Commentary. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-06896-7.
• Ovid, Metamorphoses, Volume II: Books 9-15. Translated by Frank Justus Miller. Revised by G. P. Goold. Loeb Classical Library 43. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1916.

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