Phocus, in Greek mythology, the son of Aeacus, king of Aegina, and the Nereid Psamathe, who had assumed the likeness of a seal (Greek: phoce) in trying to escape Aeacus’s embraces. Peleus and Telamon, Aeacus’s legitimate sons, resented Phocus’s superior athletic prowess. The mythography Bibliotheca (1st or 2nd century ad; Library) related that Peleus and Telamon, at the instigation of Endeis, their mother, plotted Phocus’s death, drawing lots to decide which should destroy him. The lot fell on Telamon, who murdered Phocus during a game and then claimed that the death was an accident. Aeacus, however, discovered the truth and banished both his sons.
According to some later writers, including the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus and the geographer Pausanias, Peleus was the killer; many other late accounts blame both brothers. Pausanias wrote that Telamon returned to plead his innocence but was sent away by his father. Aeacus’s role in the story may be part of the reason that he became one of the three judges of the underworld, along with Minos and Rhadamanthys.