Phocis
a division of central Greece until the Turkish War (1912) and with Bulgaria (1913). Now forms with Phthiotis a department. Pop. (1911) 174,- 574. The greater part of the country is occupied by the mountain range of PARNASSUS (q. v.). The state derives its chief historical importance from possessing the famous oracle of Delphi. 12. P. dactylifera is the date palm. During the Peloponnesian war the Phocians were close allies of the Athenians. In the time of Philip of Macedon they were involved in a 10 years' war, commonly known as the Sacred or Phocian War, which ended disastrously for the Phocians, the whole of whose cities (22 in number) were destroyed, with one exception, and the inhabitants parceled out among the hamlets.
PHŒBUS (i. e., "the Bright"), an epithet, and subsequently a name, of Apollo. It had reference both to the youthful beauty of the god and to the radiance of the sun, when, latterly, Apollo became identified with Helios, the sun god.
P. sylvestris is the wild date, a tree very common, both wild and cultivated, in India. The fibrous leaflets and the fibers from the petioles are manufactured into mats, ropes, and baskets; sugar is made from the sap of the tree. The juice of P. furinifera, a small species in sandy parts of India, yields sago; its leaves are used in mat making, and those of P. paludosa, which grows in the Sunderbunds, for rough ropes and thatching. The fruit of P. acaulis, a stemless species from the Sub-Himalayas and central India, is eaten by the natives. In entomology, Cidaria ribesaria, a geometer moth, gooseberry bushes. In mythology, a fabulous female bird of Arabia, which was feigned to live for 500 or 600 years in the desert, when she built for herself larva of which feeds on currant and