Phoenix (mythology)
The phoenix, or phœnixas it is sometimes spelled, has been an enduring myth symbol for millenia and across vastly different cultures. From religion and nature symbolism in ancient Egypt, to a secular symbol for recent armies, communities and even societies, as well as an often used literature symbol, the mythical bird's representation of death and re-birth seems to resonate across time and geography.
General Description
Although many cultures have their own interpertation of the phoenix, the differences in nuiance are overshadowed by the mythical creature's more homogeneous characteristics. The phoenix is always a bird, usually having plummage of colors corresponding to fire: yellow, orange, red and gold. The most universal characteristic is the bird's ability of ressurection. Living a long life (the exact age can vary from 500 to over a thousand years), the bird dies in a self-created fire, burning into a pile of ashes, from which a phoenix chick is born, representing a cylical process of life from death. Because it is re-born from its own death, the phoenix also took on characteristics of regeneration and immortality.
Mythical Origins
Egytian
| Bennu –or Heron Phoenix in hieroglyphs | |||||
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The earliest representation of the phoenix is found in the egyptian Bennu bird, the name relating to the verb “weben,” meaning “to rise brilliantly,” or “to shine.” Some researchers believe that a now extinct large Heron was a possible real life inspiration for the Bennu. However, since the Bennu, like all the other versions of the phoenix, are primarly symbolic icons, the many mythical sources of the Bennu in anceint egyptian culture reveal far more about the civilization. In one of the more prevalent myths, the Bennu had created itself from a fire that was burned on a holy tree in one of the sacred precincts of the temple of Ra. Other versions say that the Bennu bird burst forth from the heart of Osiris. 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 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).
The Bennu was pictured as a grey, purple, blue, or white heron with a long beak and a two-feathered crest. Occasionally the Bennu was depicted as a yellow wagtail, or as an 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, 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 anceint egyptian belief in a spiritual continuation of life after physical death, but also reflected the crucial natural process of the Nile's rising and falling, which the Egyptian's depended upon for survival. The Bennu also became closely connected to the Egyptian calender, 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 mythological bird, similar to the Egyptian phoenix, which consumes itself in fire every few hundred years, only to rise anew from the ashes. It is considered to be a compassionate bird. The touch of the Huma 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 master Inayat Khan, "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 so evolve that they break all limitation, then he becomes as a king. It is the limitation of language that it can only describe the Most High as something like a king." [2]
Greek and Roman
The Greeks adapted the word bennu (and also took over its further Egyptian meaning of date palm tree), and identified it with their own word phoenix φοινιξ, meaning the colour purple-red or crimson (cf. Phoenicia). They and the Romans subsequently pictured the bird more like a peacock or an eagle. According to the Greeks 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 stopped his chariot (the sun) in order to listen to its song.
Chinese
Other mythical references
Phoenix (also known as Garuda in sanskrit) is the mystical firebird which is considered as chariot of Hindu God Vishnu. Its reference can be found in Hindu epic Ramayana. In Russian folklore, the phoenix appears as the Zhar-Ptitsa (Жар-Птица), or firebird,
Literature
The phoenix myth is referred to in Shakespeare's play The Tempest,
- Now I will believe
- That there are unicorns; that in Arabia
- There is one tree, the phoenix' throne; one phoenix
- At this hour reigning there.
- -(III.iii.27)
Also, in Timon of Athens, a senator metaphorically calls Timon "a naked gull, which flashes now a phoenix."
The early Christian Apostolic Father 1 Clement references the Phoenix.
In certain works of Renaissance literature, the phoenix is said to have been eaten as the rarest of dishes – for only one was alive at any one time. Jonson, in Volpone (1605), III, vii. 204-5 writes: 'could we get the phœnix, though nature lost her kind, shee were our dish.' Another mention of the phoenix as a culinary delicacy occurs in John Webster's The White Devil (1612):
"Those noblemen, / Which were invited to your prodigal feasts, / Wherein the phoenix scarce could scrape your throats, / Laugh at your misery, as fore-deeming you / An idle meteor which drawn forth the earth / Would be lost in the air." [Act I, scene i, 23-25]
Some literary critics believe the conclusion of Andrew Marvell's 1681 poem "To His Coy Mistress" may allude to the Phoenix, given its references to birds and fire.
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'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 1957 children's novel David and the Phoenix features the Phoenix as a main character.
Phuong, the name of a female character in Graham Greene's _The Quiet American_ who seeks a marriage to a Westerner, means "Phoenix."
The phoenix was also famed for being a symbol of the rise and fall of society, Montag and Faber in 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.
More recently, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels feature a phoenix, named Fawkes (after Guy Fawkes). He is Dumbledore's pet. Dumbledore's Patronus is a phoenix. The life span of this bird is unknown, though it is less than 500 years. In Harry Potter's world, phoenixes can carry enormous weights, their tears have extraordinary healing powers and their song is said to strike fear into the hearts of the impure and courage into those who are pure of heart. The wizards' wands in this world all have a magical element (i.e. a phoenix feather, a unicorn hair, dragon heartstring) at their core (surrounded by wood). Both Harry's and Lord Voldemort's wands contain a feather from Dumbledore's pet phoenix, Fawkes, hence why they locked in Priori Incantatem when the two characters attempted to engage in a magical battle.
In Neil Gaiman's short story 'Firebird', a party of Epicureans finally answer the question of what happens when a Phoenix is roasted and eaten; you burst into flames, and 'the years burn off you'. This can kill those who are unexperienced, but those who have swallowed fire and practised with glow-worms can achieve an immensely satisfying eternal youth.
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 not as failures, but as successful resurrections, like those described in the tales of the biblical character Lazarus and the Phoenix. By the end of the poem, the speaker has transformed into a firebird, 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."
In Alan Gibbons 'Legendeer' series the main character is called phoenix and is a rebirth of his great uncle Andreas and his destiny as the Legendeer. Phoenix then completes his great uncle's destiny travelling through 3 worlds of ancients myths ; Ancient Greece; Vampyrs; Norse myths. He then appears to die but it is reavelled he chose a new life/birth patrolling these myth worlds and keeping them safe.
In Terry Pratchett's novel Carpe Jugulum, the search for the phoenix forms an important, if confusing and seemingly useless, side plot.
External links
- Entry for the Phoenix in The Aberdeen Bes
- Mythical Phoenix History
- General description, with Ancient References
- Ancient Egypt: The mythology
- Pedigree of the Phoenix - The Total Solar Eclipse Sun-Bird This link is broken!
- Image of the mythological Huma bird
- The Mysticism of Sound, Hazrat Inayat Khan (includes discussion of Huma myth)
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