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sun. Herodotus, who had never seen the phoenix himself, did not believe this story, but he tells us that the pictures of it represented a bird with See also:

GOLDEN

golden and red plumage, closely resembling an See also:

EAGLE (Fr. aigle, from the Lat. aquila)

eagle in See also:

SIZE

size and shape. According to See also:

Pliny (Nat. hist. x. 2), there is only one phoenix at a See also:

time, and he, at the See also:

close of his See also:

long See also:

LIFE

life, builds himself a See also:

NEST

nest with twigs of See also:

cassia and See also:

FRANKINCENSE

frankincense, on which he See also:

DIES, CHRISTOPH ALBERT (1755-1822)

dies; from his See also:

CORPSE (Lat. corpus, the body)

corpse is generated a See also:

WORM

worm which grows into the See also:

young phoenix. See also:

Tacitus (See also:

Ann. vi. 28) says that the young bird See also:

LAYS

lays his father on the See also:

ALTAR (Lat. altare, from alias, high; some ancient etymological guesses are recorded by St Isidore of Seville in Etymologiae xv. 4)

altar in the See also:

CITY (through Fr. cite, from Lat. civitas)

city of the sun, or See also:

burns him there; but the most See also:

FAMILIAR (through the Fr. familier, from Lat. familiaris, of or belonging to the familia, family)

familiar See also:

FORM (Lat. forma)

form of the See also:

LEGEND (through the French from the med. Lat. legenda, things to be read, from legere, to read)

legend is that in the See also:

PHYSIOLOGUS

Physiologus (q.v.), where the phoenix is described as an See also:

INDIAN

Indian bird which subsists on See also:

air for 506 years, after which, See also:

LADING (from " to lade," O. Eng. hladan, to put cargo on board; cf. " load "), BILL OF

lading his wings with spices, he flies to See also:

HELIOPOLIS

Heliopolis, enters the temple there, and is burned to ashes on the altar. Next See also:

day the young phoenix is already feathered; on the third day his pinions are full grown, he salutes the See also:

PRIEST (Ger. Priester, Fr. pretre)

priest and flies away. The See also:

period at which the phoenix reappears is very variously stated, some authors giving as much as 1461 or even 7006 years, but 500 years is the period usually named; and Tacitus tells us that the bird was said to have appeared first under See also:

SESOSTRIS

Sesostris (Senwosri), then under See also:

AMASIS

Amasis (Ahmosi) II., under See also:

PTOLEMY (CLAUDIUS PTOLEMAEUS)

Ptolemy III., and once again in A.D.

34, after an See also:

INTERVAL

interval so See also:

SHORT, FRANCIS JOB (1857– )

short that the genuineness of the last phoenix was suspected. The phoenix that was shown at See also:

Rome in the See also:

YEAR

year of the See also:

SECULAR (Lat. saecularis, of or belonging to an age or generation, saeculum)

secular See also:

GAMES, CLASSICAL

games (A.D. 47) was universally admitted to be an imposture? The form and See also:

variations of these stories characterize them as popular tales rather than See also:

OFFICIAL (Late Lat. QJicialis, for class. Lat. apparitor, from officium, office, duty)

official See also:

THEOLOGY

theology; but they evidently must have had points of See also:

ATTACHMENT

attachment in the mystic See also:

religion of See also:

EGYPT

Egypt, and indeed both Horapollon and Tacitus speak of the phoenix as a See also:

SYMBOL (Gr. o-uµ(3oXov, a sign)

symbol of the sun. Now we know from the See also:

BOOK

Book of the Dead, and other See also:

EGYPTIAN

Egyptian texts, that a See also:

STORK (A. S. store, Ger. Storch)

stork, See also:

HERON (Fr. heron; Ital. aghirone, airone; Lat. ardea; Gr. ipw&bs: A.-S. hragra; Icelandic, hegre; Swed. hager; Dan. heire; Ger. Heiger, Reiher, Heergans; Dutch, reiger)

heron or egret called the benu was one of the sacred symbols of the See also:

WORSHIP (i.e. " worth-ship," O. Eng. weor8scipe)

worship of Heliopolis, and A. See also:

WIEDEMANN, GUSTAV HEINRICH (1826-1899)

Wiedemann (" See also:

Die Phonix-See also:

SAGE, RUSSELL (1816-1906)

Sage See also:

IM(K2+a2+h2—2 ah cos 0)

im See also:

ALIEN (Lat. alienus)

alien Aegypten " in Zeitschrift fiir cegyptische Sprache, xvi. 89) has made it tolerably clear that the benu was a symbol of the rising sun, whence it is represented as " self-generating " and called " the soul of Ra (the sun)," " the See also:

heart of the renewed Sun." All the mystic symbolism of the See also:

MORNING

morning sun, especially in connexion with the See also:

DOCTRINE

doctrine of the future life, could thus be transferred to the benu, and the See also:

LANGUAGE (adapted from the Fr. langage, from langue, tongue, Lat. lingua)

language of the See also:

HYMNS

hymns in which the Egyptians praised the luminary of See also:

DAWN (the 16th-century form of the earlier " Jawing " or " dawning," from an old verb " daw," O. Eng. dagian, to become day; cf. Dutch dagen, and Ger. tagen)

dawn as he See also:

drew near 2 Some other See also:

ancient accounts may be here referred to. That ascribed to Hecataeus is, in the See also:

JUDGMENT

judgment of C. G. Gobet (Mnemosyne, 1883), stolen from Herodotus by a See also:

LATE

late forger. The poem of the See also:

JEW, THE WANDERING

Jew Ezechiel quoted by See also:

Eusebius (Praep. ev. ix. 29, 30) appears to refer to the phoenix.

Here the sweet See also:

SONG

song is first mentioned—a song which, according to the poem on the phoenix ascribed to Lactantius, accompanies the rising sun. The bird is often spoken of in Latin See also:

POETRY

poetry, and is the subject of an idyll by Claudian. See also See also:

SOLINUS, GAIUS JULIUS

Solinus, Collectanea, ch. xxxiii. r1, with See also:

SALMASIUS, CLAUDIUS

Salmasius's Exercitationes; See also:

TERTULLIAN (c. 155-c. 222)

Tertullian, De resur. carnis, c. 13; Clemens Rom. Epp. ad Corinthios, i. 25 and the (?Clementine) See also:

APOSTOLICAL

Apostolical Constitutions, v. 7 from Arabia, delighting the gods with his fragrance and rising from the sinking flames of the morning glow, was enough to suggest most of the traits materialized in the classical pictures of the phoenix. That the benu is the prototype of the phoenix is further confirmed by the fact that the former word in Egyptian means also " palm-See also:

tree," just as the latter does in Greek. The very various periods named make it probable that the periodical return of the phoenix belongs only to vulgar legend, materializing what the priests knew to be symbolic. Of the birds of the heron See also:

FAMILY

family the gorgeous See also:

COLOURS, MILITARY

colours and plumed See also:

head spoken of by Pliny and others would be least inappropriate to the purple heron (See also:

ARDEA

Ardea purpurea), with which, or with the allied Ardea cinerea, it has been identified by See also:

LEPSIUS, KARL RICHARD (1810–1884)

Lepsius and See also:

Peters (Alteste Texte See also:

des Todtenbuchs, 1867, p. 51). But the golden and purple hues described by Herodotus may be the colours of sunrise rather than the actual hues of the purple heron.

How Herodotus came to think that the bird was like an eagle is quite unexplained; perhaps this is merely a slip of memory. Many commentators still understand the word T?in, chol, in See also:

Job See also:

XXIX

xxix. 18 (A.V. " See also:

sand ") of the phoenix. This See also:

INTERPRETATION (from Lat. interpretari, to expound, explain, inter pres, an agent, go-between, interpreter; inter, between, and the root pret-, possibly connected with that seen either in Greek 4 p4'ew, to speak, or irpa-rrecv, to do)

interpretation is perhaps as old as the (See also:

ORIGINAL

original) See also:

SEPTUAGINT, THE (Gr. of 0', Lat. LXX.)

Septuagint, and is current with the later See also:

Jews. Among the See also:

ARABS

Arabs the story of the phoenix was confused with that of the See also:

SALAMANDER

salamander; and the samand or samandal (See also:

DAMIRI

Damiri, ii. 36 seq.) is represented sometimes as a quadruped, sometimes as a bird. It was firmly believed in, for the incombustible cloths See also:

WOVEN

woven of flexible See also:

ASBESTOS

asbestos were popularly thought to be made of its See also:

HAIR (a word common to Teutonic languages)

hair or plumage, and were themselves called by the same name (cf. Yaqut i. 529, and See also:

DOZY, REINHART PIETER ANNE (182o-1883)

Dozy, s.v.). The 'anka (Pers. simurgh), a stupendous bird like the See also:

roc (rukh) of Marco See also:

Polo and the Arabian Nights, also borrows some features of the phoenix. According to Kazwini (i.

420) it lives 1700 years, and when a young bird is hatched the See also:

PARENT, SIMON NAPOLEON (1855– )

parent of opposite See also:

SEX (Lat. sexes; possibly connected with secure, to cut)

sex burns itself alive.

End of Article: PHOENIX (Gr. 4oivt )

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