PHIDON was a prominent Athenian, fl. fifth century B.C., slain during the reign of the Thirty Tyrants, c. September 404-May 403 B.C. During this period the tyrants executed, without trial, several prominent men of democratic and oligarchical views (Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History XIV, 5-6). Jerome tells the story of Phidon's daughters, who were forced to dance naked over their father's blood before the tyrants; they then drowned themselves in a cistern to preserve their virginity, Epistola adversus Jovinianum (Letter Against Jovinian), I.41 (PL 23: 271).

Dorigen thinks that Phidon's daughters are exemplary figures of maidenly virtue, FranklT 1369. [Dorigen]

The name occurs medially.