A phoenix is a mythical bird. It is supposed to have a gold tail and red plumage. It has a 500 to 1,000 year life cycle. When it is dying, it builds itself a nest of myrrh twigs that they ignite and both the bird and the next burn and reduce to ashes. From which, a baby phoenix comes to life. The new phoenxi embalms the ashes of its old self in an egg made of myrrh and deposits it in Heliopolis. The bird is suppossed to regenerate when hurt of wounded by a foe. It also can heal a person with a tear from its eyes and make them temporarily immune to death. It is a symbol of fire and divinity.
According to Physiologus, the phoenix orriginated in India. The Grecian author, Flavius Philostratus, refers to teh phoenix as living in India, but sometimes migrating to Egypt every half century. He considered the bird to be much like an eagle in appearence and size. Originally, the phoenix was said by the Egyptians to be a stork or heron like bird called a benu, which is known from the Book of the Dead and other Egyptian writings as one of the sacred worship symbols of Heliopolis. The Greeks identified the bird with their own word, phoenix, meaning the crimson. THey and the Romans pictured the bird more like apeacock of an eagle. According to them, the bird lived in Phoenicia next to a well. "Phoenix" is also the English- language name for the most important bird in Chinese mythology, the fenghuang, which has its own set of characteristicas and symbolic meanings, which I will try to research and tell you about tomorrow.
According to Physiologus, the phoenix orriginated in India. The Grecian author, Flavius Philostratus, refers to teh phoenix as living in India, but sometimes migrating to Egypt every half century. He considered the bird to be much like an eagle in appearence and size. Originally, the phoenix was said by the Egyptians to be a stork or heron like bird called a benu, which is known from the Book of the Dead and other Egyptian writings as one of the sacred worship symbols of Heliopolis. The Greeks identified the bird with their own word, phoenix, meaning the crimson. THey and the Romans pictured the bird more like apeacock of an eagle. According to them, the bird lived in Phoenicia next to a well. "Phoenix" is also the English- language name for the most important bird in Chinese mythology, the fenghuang, which has its own set of characteristicas and symbolic meanings, which I will try to research and tell you about tomorrow.
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