PHAETON

(Gr. if iniBiuv, shining.) In Mythology, ' the son of Apollo and Clymenes; one of the Oceanides, according to most writers. The fable of his adventures is well known. Taunted with his doubtful origin, he asked his father to lend him the chariot of the sun for a day, as a proof of his filial rights. Unable to guide the fiery steeds, he was dashed to the ground by Jupiter with a thunderbolt, to prevent his consuming the heavens and earth. The best known narrative is that in Ovid's Metamorphoses. PHAGEDiENIC. (Gr. (bu.yM, to eat.) A term applied to ulcers which rapidly corrode and destroy the parts which they attack. PHALANGER, Phalangist a. (Gr. (fotXxy^, a phalanx.) The name of a genus of Marsupial animals, including those in which the second and third toes of each hind foot are united together as far as the last phalanx in a common cutaneous sheath, and which have a hinder thumb, but no lateral cutaneous parachute. [s. 932]