I.a seal, sea-dog, sea-calf (pure Lat. vitula marina), Verg. G. 4, 432: “deformes phocae,” Ov. M. 1, 300; so id. ib. 2, 267; Plin. 9, 7, 6, § 19. Proteus had a span of seadogs: “Protea huc rexisse vias junctis super aequora phocis,” Val. Fl. 2, 319. A grandson of Cephisus is fabled to have been changed by Apollo into this animal, Ov. M. 7, 388.
phōcă , ae, and phōcē , ēs, f., = φώκη,