Phoenix Legend Hạ Long
Frida Kosofsky
During the first century AD, Phoenix was mentioned 21 times by ten authors. From all these sources it appears that the myth of Phoenix originated in ancient Egyptian civilization and was later spoken of in Greek, Roman and Christian civilizations, respectively. Among the Egyptians, the myth of Phoenix was originally the myth of the sun rising again at dawn after each night, and the name of the city of Heliopolis in Herodotus must have been related to this. The Egyptians consider the phoenix a sacred bird, which is very rare. According to the people of Heliopolis, the phoenix appears in Egypt once every 500 years after the death of the previous phoenix. There are only a few pictures of this bird, and as can be seen from its shape and size in these pictures, the wings and jump are red and yellow are golden, and its general size is like an eagle. A strange story is told about the work of this bird, and that is that this bird brings its father's body, which is covered with a kind of fragrant plant gum, all the way from the Arab land to the Temple of the Sun and buries it there. It is said that in order to bring a corpse, first it makes a gum large enough to carry it, then it empties it and puts the corpse in it and closes its mouth with fresh gum, and then the bullet, which is correct. It has regained its original weight, is brought to Egypt, and while the entire surface of the bullet is covered with gum, it is placed inside the Temple of the Sun, as mentioned.In
According to Chinese legend, the phoenix was originally an inconspicuous bird with a plain appearance. Unlike most birds that busied themselves with playing around, he collected fruit and seeds in his den from dawn to dust. Unable to understand his behavior, other birds mocked him for being greedy.
When the rain finally returned, bringing life back to the forest, the birds wanted to show their gratitude to the phoenix. Each bird pulled out one of their most beautiful feathers, and together they made the feathers into a dazzling garment. They presented the garment to the phoenix, and crowned him as their king.
The phoenix is an immortal bird that cyclically regenerates or is otherwise born again. While it is part of Greek mythology, it has analogs in many cultures, such as Egyptian and Persian. Associated with the sun, a phoenix obtains new life by rising from the ashes of its predecessor. Some legends say it dies in a show of flames and combustion, while others that it simply dies and decomposes before being born again.[1] In the Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, a tool used by folklorists, the phoenix is classified as motif B32.[2]
The origin of the phoenix has been attributed to Ancient Egypt by Herodotus and later 19th-century scholars, but other scholars think the Egyptian texts may have been influenced by classical folklore. Over time, the phoenix motif spread and gained a variety of new associations; Herodotus, Lucan, Pliny the Elder, Pope Clement I, Lactantius, Ovid, and Isidore of Seville are among those who have contributed to the retelling and transmission of the phoenix motif. Over time, extending beyond its origins, the phoenix could variously "symbolize renewal in general as well as the sun, time, the Empire, metempsychosis, consecration, resurrection, life in the heavenly Paradise, Christ, Mary, virginity, the exceptional man, and certain aspects of Christian life".[3] Some scholars have claimed that the poem De ave phoenice may present the mythological phoenix motif as a symbol of Christ's resurrection.[4]
The modern English word phoenix entered the English language from Latin, later reinforced by French. The word first entered the English language by way of a borrowing of Latin phoenīx into Old English (fenix). This borrowing was later reinforced by French influence, which had also borrowed the Latin noun. In time, the word developed specialized use in the English language: For example, the term could refer to an "excellent person" (12th century), a variety of heraldic emblem (15th century), and the name of a constellation (17th century).[5]
The Latin word comes from Greek φοῖνιξ (phoinix).[6] The Greek word is first attested in the Mycenaean Greek po-ni-ke, which probably meant "griffin", though it might have meant "palm tree". That word is probably a borrowing from a West Semitic word for madder, a red dye made from Rubia tinctorum. The word Phoenician appears to be from the same root, meaning "those who work with red dyes". So phoenix may mean "the Phoenician bird" or "the purplish-red bird".[7]
Apart from the Linear B mention above from Mycenaean Greece, the earliest clear mention of the phoenix in ancient Greek literature occurs in a fragment of the Precepts of Chiron, attributed to 8th-century BC Greek poet Hesiod. In the fragment, the wise centaur Chiron tells a young hero Achilles the following,[clarification needed][8] describing the phoenix's lifetime as 972 times the length of a long-lived human's:
Classical discourse on the subject of the phoenix attributes a potential origin of the phoenix to Ancient Egypt. Herodotus, writing in the 5th century BC, provides the following account of the phoenix:[9]
[The Egyptians] have also another sacred bird called the phoenix which I myself have never seen, except in pictures. Indeed it is a great rarity, even in Egypt, only coming there (according to the accounts of the people of Heliopolis) once in five hundred years, when the old phoenix dies. Its size and appearance, if it is like the pictures, are as follow: The plumage is partly red, partly golden, while the general make and size are almost exactly that of the eagle. They tell a story of what this bird does, which does not seem to me to be credible: that he comes all the way from Arabia, and brings the parent bird, all plastered over with myrrh, to the temple of the Sun, and there buries the body. In order to bring him, they say, he first forms a ball of myrrh as big as he finds that he can carry; then he hollows out the ball and puts his parent inside, after which he covers over the opening with fresh myrrh, and the ball is then of exactly the same weight as at first; so he brings it to Egypt, plastered over as I have said, and deposits it in the temple of the Sun. Such is the story they tell of the doings of this bird.
In the 19th century, scholastic suspicions appeared to be confirmed by the discovery that Egyptians in Heliopolis had venerated the Bennu, a solar bird similar in some respects to the Greek phoenix. However, the Egyptian sources regarding the bennu are often problematic and open to a variety of interpretations. Some of these sources may have actually been influenced by Greek notions of the phoenix, rather than the other way around.[10]
The phoenix is sometimes pictured in ancient and medieval literature and medieval art as endowed with a halo, which emphasizes the bird's connection with the Sun.[15] In the oldest images of phoenixes on record these nimbuses often have seven rays, like Helios (the Greek personification of the Sun).[16] Pliny the Elder[17] also describes the bird as having a crest of feathers on its head,[15] and Ezekiel the Dramatist compared it to a rooster.[18]
The phoenix came to be associated with specific colors over time. Although the phoenix was generally believed to be colorful and vibrant, sources provide no clear consensus about its coloration. Tacitus says that its color made it stand out from all other birds.[19] Some said that the bird had peacock-like coloring, and Herodotus's claim of the Phoenix being red and yellow is popular in many versions of the story on record.[20] Ezekiel the Tragedian declared that the phoenix had red legs and striking yellow eyes,[18] but Lactantius said that its eyes were blue like sapphires[21] and that its legs were covered in yellow-gold scales with rose-colored talons.[22]
Herodotus, Pliny, Solinus, and Philostratus describe the phoenix as similar in size to an eagle,[23] but Lactantius and Ezekiel the Dramatist both claim that the phoenix was larger, with Lactantius declaring that it was even larger than an ostrich.[24]
The story is that it is as large as an eagle, and has a gleam of gold round its neck and all the rest of it is purple, but the tail blue picked out with rosecoloured feathers and the throat picked out with tufts, and a feathered crest adorning its head.
arcanum radiant oculi iubar. igneus ora
cingit honos. rutilo cognatum vertice sidus
attollit cristatus apex tenebrasque serena
luce secat. Tyrio pinguntur crura veneno.
antevolant Zephyros pinnae, quas caerulus ambit
flore color sparsoque super ditescit in auro.
A mysterious fire flashes from its eye,
and a flaming aureole enriches its head. Its crest
shines with the sun's own light and shatters the
darkness with its calm brilliance. Its legs are of Tyrian
purple; swifter than those of the Zephyrs are its wings
of flower-like blue dappled with rich gold.
According to Pliny the Elder, a senator Manilius (Marcus Manilius?) had written that the phoenix appeared at the end of each Great Year, which he wrote of "in the consulship of Gnaeus Cornelius and Publius Licinius", that is, in 96 BC, that a cycle was 540 years, and that it was 215 into the cycle (i.e. it began in 311 BC).[25] Another of Pliny's sources, Cornelius Valerianus, is cited for an appearance of the phoenix in 36 AD "in the consulship of Quintus Plautius and Sextus Papinius".[25] Pliny states that a purported phoenix seen in Egypt in 47 AD was brought to the capital and exhibited in the Comitium in time for the 800th anniversary of the foundation of Rome by Romulus, though he added that "nobody would doubt that this phoenix was a fabrication".[25]
A second recording of the phoenix was made by Tacitus, who said that the phoenix had appeared instead in 34 AD "in the consulship of Paulus Fabius and Lucius Vitellius" and that the cycle was either 500 years or 1461 years (which was the Great Year based on the Egyptian Sothic cycle), and that it had previously been seen in the reigns first of Sesosis, then of Amasis, and finally of Ptolemy (third of the Macedonian dynasty).[28] A third recording was made by Cassius Dio, who also said that the phoenix was seen in the consulship of Quintus Plautus and Sextus Papinius.[29]
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