Phygelus is mentioned with Hermogenes in 2 Timothy 1:15 as among the disciples in proconsular Asia who had turned away from (i.e. repudiated) the writer, afraid or ashamed to recognize him (being a prisoner), and are thus contrasted with Onesiphorus (q.v._). The pseudo-Dorotheus of Tyre makes both Phygelus and Hermogenes to belong to the seventy disciples, and the former to be a follower of Simon Magus and afterwards bishop of Ephesus, and the latter bishop of Megara. In the Acts of Paul and Thecla, Demas and Hermogenes are named as Paul’s fellow-travellers, full of hypocrisy, when he fled from Antioch to Iconium and enjoyed the hospitality of Onesiphorus.
W. F. Cobb.