A pious, elderly Phrygian who, despite his poverty, offered hospitality to Zeus and Hermes. As a reward, the gods changed the hut Philemon and his wife Baucis lived in into a temple, with them as temple guardians.

These gods descended to earth disguised as mortals, and when they were wandering in the region where Philemon and Baucis lived, they sought a place to rest, but no home would receive them until they knocked at the door of this aged couple's humble home. As a reward they were saved from a punitive flood and were made priest and priestess to the gods. Having done all these wonders, the gods told them to ask any boon they wished.

They asked to be the priests of the temple and, since they had spent their lives in constant company, they prayed to die at the same time, and Philemon asked: "... that I may never see my wife's tomb, nor be buried by her." The gods granted their request, for after spending still many years guarding the temple, one day they put forth leaves, and no sooner they had said farewell to each other, they were turned into trees standing close together and growing from one double trunk whose branches intertwined.