What is "phaon"

Phaon in Greek mythology (; gen.: Φάοντος) was a boatman of Mitylene in Lesbos. He was old and ugly when Aphrodite came to his boat. She put on the guise of a crone. Phaon ferried her over to Asia Minor and accepted no payment for doing so. In return, she gave him a box of ointment. When he rubbed it on himself, he became young and beautiful. Many were captivated by his beauty.

According to mythology, Sappho fell in love with him. He lay with her but soon grew to resent her and devalue her. Sappho was so distraught with his rejection that she threw herself into the sea under the superstition that she would be either cured of her love, or drowned. She was drowned. Aelian says that Phaon was killed by a man whom he was cuckolding.

Aside from Aelian, Phaon's story is told by Ovid and Lucian. He is also mentioned by Plautus in Miles Gloriosus as being one of only two men in the whole world, who "ever had the luck to be so passionately loved by a woman" (Act 3).

''This article incorporates text from the public domain 1848 edition of Lemprière's Classical Dictionary.

Phaon is a small genus of damselflies belonging to the family Calopterygidae. They occur in central and southern Africa.

The genus contains only two species:

• Phaon camerunensis – Forest Flashwing
• Phaon iridipennis – Glistening Demoiselle

Phaon was an imperial freedman and confidant of the Roman emperor Nero. He, with Epaphroditos, Neophytus and Sporus, took Nero to his own villa in the suburban area of Rome where the emperor would commit suicide subsequently.

An amphorae stamp was found with the inscrition "Phaontis | Aug(usti) l(iberti) a rat(ionibus)", which could mean he was the rationibus of Nero.

It is unclear if he was a freedman of Nero or of Domitia Lepida, whose properties and patronal rights were transferred to Nero after her execution in 54. A "L. Domitius Phaion" is mentioned in an inscription.

Phaon is a boatman from Greek mythology, lover of Sappho.

Phaon may also refer to:

• Phaon (freedman) , a confidant of Roman emperor Nero
• Phaon (fiction), a character in The Faerie Queene
• Phaon (genus), a genus of damselfly
• Phyciodes phaon, or phaeon crescent, a species of butterfly