Phoenix (mythology)

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The phoenix, or phœnix as it is sometimes spelled, has been an enduring mythological
(/entry/Myth) symbol for millennia and across vastly different cultures (/entry/Culture).
Despite such varieties of societies and times, the phoenix is consistently characterized as
a bird with brightly colored plumage, which, after a long life, dies in a fire of its own making
only to rise again from the ashes. From religious (/entry/Religion) and naturalistic
symbolism in ancient Egypt (/entry/Ancient_Egypt), to a secular symbol for armies,
communities, and even societies, as well as an often-used literary symbol, this mythical
bird's representation of death and rebirth seems to resonate with humankind's aspirations.

Contents General Description

1 General Description Although many cultures (/entry/Culture) have their
2 Mythical Origins own interpretation of the phoenix, the differences in (/entry/File:Phoenix_detail_from_Aberdee
2.1 Egyptian
nuance are overshadowed by the mythical creature The phoenix from the Aberdeen Bestiary.
2.2 Persian (/entry/Mythical_creature)'s more homogeneous
2.3 Greek characteristics. The phoenix is always a bird
2.4 Oriental (/entry/Bird), usually having plumage of colors corresponding to fire (/entry/Fire): yellow, orange,
2.5 Judaism and red, and gold. The most universal characteristic is the bird's ability to resurrect
Christianity
(/entry/Resurrection). Living a long life (the exact age can vary from five hundred to over a
3 Heraldry thousand years), the bird dies in a self-created fire, burning into a pile of ashes, from which a
4 Literature
phoenix chick is born, representing a cyclical process of life from death. Because it is reborn
5 Notes
from its own death, the phoenix also took on the characteristics of regeneration and immortality.
6 References
7 External links
8 Credits Mythical Origins Did you know?

Diverse cultures include

Egyptian variations on the phoenix, a
The earliest representation of the phoenix is found in the ancient Egyptian (/entry/Ancient_Egypt) bird with the ability to be
Bennu bird, the name relating to the verb “weben,” meaning “to rise brilliantly,” or “to shine.” reborn
Some researchers believe that a now extinct large heron (/entry/Heron) was a possible real
life inspiration for the Bennu. However, since the Bennu, like all the other versions of the Bennu –or Heron
phoenix, is primarily a symbolic icon, the many mythical sources of the Bennu in ancient Phoenix
Egyptian culture reveal more about the civilization (/entry/Civilization) than the existence of in hieroglyphs (/entry/Egyptian_hieroglyph)
a real bird.

One version of the myth says that the Bennu bird burst forth from the heart of Osiris
(/entry/Osiris). In the more prevalent myths (/entry/Myth), the Bennu created itself from a
fire that was burned on a holy tree in one of the sacred precincts of the temple of Ra. The
Bennu was supposed to have rested on a sacred pillar that was known as the benben-stone. At the end of its life-cycle, the phoenix
would build itself a nest of cinnamon (/entry/Cinnamon) twigs that it then ignited; both nest and bird burned fiercely and would be
reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix arose. The new phoenix embalmed the ashes of the old phoenix in an egg made
of myrrh and deposited it in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis ("the city of the sun" in Greek (/entry/Greek_language)).

The Bennu was pictured as a grey, purple, blue, or white heron with a long beak and a two-feathered crest. Occasionally it was
depicted as a yellow wagtail, or as an eagle (/entry/Eagle) with feathers of red and gold. In rare instances the Bennu was pictured as a
man with the head of a heron, wearing a white or blue mummy dress under a transparent long coat. Because of its connection to
Egyptian religion (/entry/Religion), the Bennu was considered the “soul” of the god Atum, Ra, or Osiris, and was sometimes called
“He Who Came Into Being by Himself,” “Ascending One,” and “Lord of Jubilees.” These names and the connection with Ra, the sun
god, reflected not just the ancient Egyptian belief in a spiritual continuation of life after physical death, but also reflected the natural
process of the Nile River (/entry/Nile_River)'s rising and falling, which the Egyptians depended upon for survival. The Bennu also
became closely connected to the Egyptian calendar, and the Egyptians kept intricate time measuring devices in the Bennu Temple.

Persian
The Huma, also known as the "bird of paradise," is a Persian (/entry/Persia) mythological bird, similar to the Egyptian
(/entry/Ancient_Egypt) phoenix. It consumes itself in fire every few hundred years, only to rise anew from the ashes. The Huma is
considered to be a compassionate bird and its touch is said to bring great fortune.

The Huma bird joins both the male and female natures together in one body, each sharing a wing and a leg. It avoids killing for food,
rather preferring to feed on carrion. The Persians teach that great blessings come to that person on whom the Huma's shadow falls.[1]

According to Sufi (/entry/Sufism) master Hazrat Inayat Kahn,

The word huma in the Persian language stands for a fabulous bird. There is a belief that if the huma bird sits for a moment on
someone's head it is a sign that he will become a king. Its true meaning is that when a person's thoughts evolve so that they
break all limitation, he then becomes a king. It is the limitation of language that it can only describe the Most High as something
like a king.[2]

Greek
The Greeks (/entry/Ancient_Greece) adapted the word bennu and identified it with their own word phoenix 'φοινιξ', meaning the color
purple-red or crimson. They and the Romans (/entry/Roman_Empire) subsequently pictured the bird more like a peacock or an eagle
(/entry/Eagle). According to Greek mythology (/entry/Greek_mythology), the phoenix lived in Arabia next to a well. At dawn, it bathed
in the water of the well, and the Greek sun-god Apollo (/entry/Apollo) stopped his chariot (the sun) in order to listen to its song.

Oriental
The phoenix (known as Garuda in Sanskrit
(/entry/Sanskrit)) is the mystical fire bird which
is considered as the chariot of the Hindu
(/entry/Hindu) god Vishnu (/entry/Vishnu). Its
reference can be found in the Hindu epic
Ramayana (/entry/Ramayana).

In China (/entry/China), the phoenix is called

Feng-huang (/entry/Feng-huang) and
symbolizes completeness, incorporating the
basic elements of music (/entry/Music), colors
(/entry/Color), nature, as well as the joining of
yin and yang (/entry/Yin_and_yang). It is a
(/entry/File:Mosa%C3%AFque_Ph%C
symbol of peace, and represents fire, the sun, justice, obedience, and fidelity. The Feng-
Detail from mosaic Semis de roses et
phénix Louvre Museum huang, unlike the phoenix which dies and is reborn, is truly immortal although it only appears
(/entry/Louvre_Museum), Paris in times of peace and prosperity.[3]
(/entry/Paris), France (/entry/France)

Judaism and Christianity

In Judaism (/entry/Judaism), the phoenix is known as Milcham or Chol (or Hol): The story of the phoenix begins in the Garden of Eden
(/entry/Garden_of_Eden) when Eve (/entry/Adam_and_Eve) fell, tempted by the serpent to eat the forbidden fruit. According to the
Midrash Rabbah (/entry/Midrash#Midrash_Rabbah), upset by her situation and jealous of creatures still innocent, Eve tempted all the
other creatures of the garden to do the same. Only the Chol (phoenix) resisted. As a reward, the phoenix was given eternal life, living
in peace for a thousand years and then being reborn from an egg to continue to live in peace again, repeating the cycle eternally
(Gen. Rabbah 19:5). Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, better known as Rashi (/entry/Rashi), commented that death has no power over the
phoenix, "because it did not taste the fruit from the tree of knowledge."[4]
The phoenix also appears in the Book of Job (/entry/Book_of_Job): "I shall multiply my days as the Chol, the phoenix" (Job 29:18),
again indicating long life if not immortality. This reference, however, is controversial since chol has been translated as phoenix, sand,
and palm tree in different versions.[5]

The phoenix became a symbol of Christianity in early literature, either from the ancient Hebrew legend or from the incorporation of
Greek and Roman culture, or from a combination of both. In any case, the ideology of the phoenix fit perfectly with the story of Christ
(/entry/Christ). The phoenix's resurrection (/entry/Resurrection) from death as new and pure can be viewed as a metaphor for Christ's
resurrection, central to Christian belief. The phoenix is referenced by the early Christian Apostolic Father (/entry/Apostolic_Father)
Clement (/entry/Clement_I) in The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians. Most of the Christian-based phoenix symbolism appears
within works of literature, especially in Medieval (/entry/Middle_Ages) and Renaissance (/entry/Renaissance) Christian literature that
combined classical and regional myth (/entry/Myth) and folklore (/entry/Folklore) with more mainstream doctrine.

Heraldry
The phoenix does not appear as a heraldic figure as often as other mythical creatures
(/entry/Mythical_creature). However, it has appeared on family crests and shields throughout time,
usually depicted as an eagle (/entry/Eagle) surrounded, but not hurt, by flames. Jane Seymour
(/entry/Jane_Seymour)'s heraldic badge includes a phoenix rising from a castle, between two red and
white Tudor roses.[6] Some cities in Europe use the phoenix in their municipal emblem to denote the
one-time destruction and consequent rebuilding of the city, connecting to the image of resurrection
(/entry/Resurrection) inherent in the phoenix.

Phoenix, Arizona (/entry/Arizona) was named such because it was a frontier station settled upon the (/entry/File:Rinasce_piu_gl
ruins of a Native American (/entry/Native_American) site. The first European inhabitants decided to Rinasce piu gloriosa ("It
name their city in concurrence with the idea that from the ruins of one city, another was created. rises again more
glorious").

Literature
The phoenix no longer appears significantly in any religious (/entry/Religion) or cultural (/entry/Culture)
truths. However, the image is still used in literature, perhaps because of all the mythical creatures
(/entry/Mythical_creature) from antiquity, the phoenix is the one that frequently expresses an enduring
sense of hope and redemption. Its beauty is not as otherworldly as most of the other creatures in myth
(/entry/Myth), and its symbolism is conveyed with a profound subtlety when used in literature.

William Shakespeare (/entry/William_Shakespeare) made one of the most prominent references in both
his plays The Tempest, incorporating a number of other mythical creatures (/entry/Mythical_creature) but
placing the phoenix separate and above the rest, and in Timon of Athens, when a senator
metaphorically calls Timon "a naked gull, which flashes now a phoenix." In other works of Renaissance (/entry/File:Phoenix_rising_
(/entry/Renaissance) literature, the phoenix is said to have been eaten as the rarest of dishes—for only A reborn Phoenix, rising
one was alive at any one time. Ben Jonson (/entry/Ben_Jonson), in Volpone (1605) writes: "could we get from its ashes.

the phœnix, though nature lost her kind, shee were our dish."

Sylvia Townsend Warner's 1940 short story "The Phoenix" satirized the exploitation of nature using a phoenix maltreated in a carnival
sideshow, revealing the modern preference for violence and sensationalism over beauty and dignity. The majesty of Eudora Welty's
classic 1941 short story “A Worn Path” employs the phoenix as the name of the major and virtually sole character of a sparsely
written, yet rich story of regeneration and the South.

Edith Nesbit (/entry/Edith_Nesbit)'s famous children's novel, The Phoenix and the Carpet is based on this legendary creature and its
quirky friendship with a family of children. The phoenix was also famed for being a symbol of the rise and fall of society in Ray
Bradbury (/entry/Ray_Bradbury)'s Fahrenheit 451. The pattern of an over complacent and abusive society's destruction yielding a
fresh new start was compared to the phoenix's mythological pattern of consumption by flame, then resurrection out of ashes.

Sylvia Plath (/entry/Sylvia_Plath) also alludes to the phoenix in the end of her famous poem Lady Lazarus. The speaker of this poem
describes her unsuccessful attempts at committing suicide (/entry/Suicide) not as failures, but as successful resurrections
(/entry/Resurrection), like those described in the tales of the biblical character Lazarus (/entry/Lazarus) and the phoenix. By the end of
the poem, the speaker has transformed into a fire bird, effectively marking her rebirth, which some critics liken to a demonic
transformation. The poem ends: "Out of the ash / I rise with my red hair / And I eat men like air."

More recently, Harry Potter series author J.K. Rowlings has used a phoenix as a central symbol in her stories. While the Harry Potter
series has drawn some controversy from the Christian community, Rowling's use of other classical mythical beasts and her classical
literature background suggests that she is using the phoenix as a Christian symbol of purification and resurrection.[7]

Notes
1. ↑ Naosherwan Anzar (transl.), The Master Sings, Meher Baba's Ghazals (http://www.avatarmeherbaba.org/erics/master.html) (Zeno
Publishing Services, 1981). On-line edition, May 28, 1995. Retrieved May 13, 2011.
2. ↑ Kahn, Hazrat Inayat, The Music of Life (Omega Publications, 1998, ISBN 978-0930872380
(https://www.amazon.com/dp/093087238X?tag=encyclopediap-
20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=093087238X&adid=0NQQZXQ96PDAJGB1J8XS)).
3. ↑ Mark Schumacher, Phoenix (http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/ho-oo-phoenix.shtml) www.onmarkproductions.com.
Retrieved May 13, 2011.
4. ↑ Legends of the Phoenix: A Basis in Biblical History
(http://countdowntothemessiah.com/Research/Legends_Phoenix/Phoenix_Legend.html) Countdown to the Messiah. Retrieved
May 13, 2011.
5. ↑ George Sajo, Phoenix on the top of the palm tree: Multiple interpretations of Job 29:18 (http://www.studiolum.com/en/silva5.htm)
Silva de varia leccion, Studiolum, 8-2-2005. Retrieved May 13, 2011.
6. ↑ Tudor Heraldic Badges Coats of Arms & Their Meanings (http://www.thetudorswiki.com/page/HERALDRY+of+the+Tudors) The
Tudors wiki. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
7. ↑ John Granger, Looking for God in Harry Potter (Saltriver, 2006, ISBN 1414306342 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1414306342?
tag=encyclopediap-
20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=1414306342&adid=0NQQZXQ96PDAJGB1J8XS)).

References
Conway, D. J. Magickal Mystical Creatures: Invite Their Powers Into Your Life. Llewellyn Publications, 2001. ISBN 156718149X
(https://www.amazon.com/dp/156718149X?tag=encyclopediap-
20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=156718149X&adid=0NQQZXQ96PDAJGB1J8XS)
Granger, John. Looking for God in Harry Potter. SaltRiver, 2006. ISBN 978-1414306346
(https://www.amazon.com/dp/1414306342?tag=encyclopediap-
20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=1414306342&adid=0NQQZXQ96PDAJGB1J8XS)
Kahn, Hazrat Inayat. The Music of Life. Omega Publications, 1998. ISBN 978-0930872380
(https://www.amazon.com/dp/093087238X?tag=encyclopediap-
 20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=093087238X&adid=0NQQZXQ96PDAJGB1J8XS)
Nigg, Joe. Wonder Beasts: Tales and Lore of the Phoenix, the Griffin, the Unicorn, and the Dragon. Libraries Unlimited, 1995.
ISBN 156308242X (https://www.amazon.com/dp/156308242X?tag=encyclopediap-
20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=156308242X&adid=0NQQZXQ96PDAJGB1J8XS)

External links
All links retrieved March 25, 2019.

Phoenix (Bennu, Benu) (http://www.egyptianmyths.net/phoenix.htm) Ancient Egypt: The Mythology

Phoenix (https://www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/translat/55r.hti) – Entry in The Aberdeen Bestiary
Phoenix (http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast149.htm) The Medieval Bestiary
Phoenix (mythology) (https://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Phoenix_(mythology).html)

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