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

Philaeus was one of the sons of theMolossian kingMunichus by his wifeLelante. He had two brothers,Alcander andMegaletor, and a sister namedHyperippe.

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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