Periphas
5. An Attie antochthon previous to the time of Cecrops. was a priest of Apollo, and on account of his virtues he was made king; but as he was honoured to the same extent as Zeus, the latter wished to destroy him. At the request of Apollo, however, Zeus metamorphosed him into an eagle, and his wife likewise into a bird. (Ant. Lib. 6; Ov. Met. 7.400.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.