The New International Encyclopædia/Phœnix (bird)

PHŒ′NIX (Lat., from Gk. φοίνιξ, phoinix). The name of a mythical Egyptian bird frequently mentioned by classical writers. Herodotus (ii. 73), who says he heard the story at Heliopolis and saw a picture of the bird there, relates that the phœnix, on the death of his father, embalms the body in an egg made of myrrh and conveys it from Arabia to the Temple of the Sun at Heliopolis. According to Pliny (Nat. Hist., x. 2), there is only one phœnix at a time, and when he perceives that his end is near, he builds in Arabia a nest of twigs of cassia and frankincense and dies upon it. From the body is generated a worm which develops into the new phœnix. The young bird then conveys his father's body to Heliopolis and burns it upon the altar there (Tacitus, Ann., vi. 28). According to Horapollo (ii. 57) the phœnix casts himself upon the ground and receives a wound, from the ichor of which springs his successor. But the most familiar version of the birth and death of the phœnix is that in which the bird burns itself upon a nest or pyre of odoriferous woods, and the young phœnix springs from the ashes. The interval between the bird's appearances at Heliopolis is variously stated; the period usually named is 500 years, but 1461 and 7006 years are also given. According to Tacitus (Ann., vi. 28) the phœnix appeared four times in Egypt: (1) under Sesostris (q.v.); (2) under Amasis; (3) under Ptolemy III.; and (4) in the year B.C. 34.

In Greek and Roman art it was common to represent the phœnix as an eagle; but by the Egyptians, who called it Bennu, the bird was depicted as a heron with two long feathers growing from the back of its head and sometimes with a tuft hanging from its breast. It symbolized the morning sun rising out of the glow of dawn, and hence it was looked upon as the sacred bird of the sun-god Rê. It also represented the new sun of to-day springing from the body of the old sun of yesterday, which had entered the lower world and become one with Osiris. Hence the phœnix or bennu was regarded as a manifestation of Osiris and became a symbol of the resurrection, continuing to serve as such even in early Christian times. It has been supposed by some scholars that the phœnix is mentioned in Job xxix. 18 and Psalm ciii. 5, but the identification is very doubtful. Consult: Kirchmayer, “On the Phœnix,” in Collectanea Adamantæa, No. xv., vol. ii. (Edinburgh, 1886); Wiedemann, Religion of the Ancient Egyptians (New York, 1897).