Phoenix

For the legends of the Phoenix click on these pages; Theoi Project and Wikipedia. Also the entry for the Phoenix in The Aberdeen Bestiary. 

“The phoenix is a bird of Arabia, so called because it possesses a scarlet (phoeniceus = purple) color, or because it is singular and unique in the entire world, for the Arabs say phoenix for 'singular.' This bird lives more than five hundred years, and when it sees that it has grown old it constructs a funeral pire for itself of aromatic twigs it has collected, and, turned to the rays of the sun, with a beating of its wings it deliberately kindles a fire for itself, and thus it rises again from its own ashes” [The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, 7th century AD, p.265.]

[Johann Bode, Uranoographia, 1801].

The Phoenix is often referred to as the firebird, and is the constructor of a funeral pyre, from the Indo-European root *paewr- 'Fire'. Derivatives: fire, pyre (a heap of combustibles for burning a corpse as a funeral rite), pyretic (fever), pyrites (also called fool's gold, iron pyrites, mineral containing sulfur), pyro- (fire; heat, fever), pyrosis (heartburn), pyrrhotite (a mineral also called magnetic pyrites), empyreal ('glorious and sublime'. The highest part of heaven, believed in ancient Greek and Roman times to contain pure fire or light). [Pokorny pewor 828.Watkins]

“After Phoenix, the brother of Cadmus, moved from Egyptian Thebes to Syria, he reigned at Sidon and named those people Phoenicians and the province Phoenicia after his own name” [The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, 7th century AD, p.194.]

The phoenix built its nest on top of the phoenix date-palm. It came from Arabia; i.e. Araba/Syria - Phoenicia, present-day Syria and Lebanon. As well as 'phoenix' the word denoted 'Phoenician' and the word 'purple'. The Phoenicians traveled to the edges of the known world at the time and introduced their alphabet, based on symbols for sounds - phonetics - rather than cuneiform or hieroglyphic representations, to the Greeks and other early peoples (AHD). 

The figurative sense is of "that which rises from the ashes of what was destroyed" [1]. The city of Phoenix in Arizona was so named because it was reborn out of the ancient remains of the Hohokam Indian people, who once populated the land around 300 B.C - 1450 A.D. Western Apaches referred to the area as 'Fiinigis' [2].

Klein (Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary) says that phoenix is related to; "Greek phoinos 'bloodred', phonos (for *g^whonos), 'murder', phonos (for *ghenyein), 'to strike' and cognate with Latin de-fendere ..." Latin defendere comes from the Indo-European root *gwhen- 'To strike, kill'. Derivatives: bane (a cause of harm, ruin, or death), baneful, gun, defend, defense, fence, fend, offend, offense. [Pokorny 2. gwhen-(e)- 491, bhen- 126. Watkins]

Fawkes, the phoenix who appears in the Harry Potter books, is named after Guy Fawkes. A parallel has been drawn between Fawkes' owner Albus Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix and the conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot. It has also been said that the naming of Fawkes arises from the phoenix's tendency to burst into flame [3]. In 1605 Guy Fawkes, a Catholic terrorist, was executed as a traitor for having planted barrels of gunpowder as his part in a conspiracy, the Gunpowder Plot, to blow up the London's Houses of Parliament buildings. Guy Fawkes is still celebrated in England on November 5th, Guy Fawkes Day. On this day bonfires are lit and fireworks displayed, and on the bonfires are burned effigies of Guy Fawkes.

The word Punic is from Greek Phoinix, Phoenician, and relates to ancient city of Carthage which was founded by the Phoenician Dido [4 p.98]. Dido fell in love with Aeneas (might be Indus) and committed suicide in grief after he abandoned her. Like the phoenix, Dido, whose epithet was 'Phoenissa' constructed a funeral pile and threw herself on the flames. [Might relate to the morning Venus, the rays of the Sun extinguish its light].

From ancient Greek times the phoenix has been associated with the bennu bird of Egyptian mythology. The planet Venus was called the 'star of the ship of the Bennu-Ausar' (Osiris), mentioned as the Morning Star in this invocation to the sacred sun bird. "I am the Bennu, the soul of Ra, and the guide of the gods in the Tuat; let it be so done unto me that I may enter in like a hawk, and that I may come forth like Bennu, the Morning Star." [5]. Some see a possible connection with the Egyptian word Bennu and our word 'Venus'. There has also been some speculation that the words phoenix, Venice and Venus are ultimately related.

This bird has been "an astronomical symbol of cyclic period" [Allen, Star Names]. According to various accounts it lives for (depending on the source): 500 years, 540 years, 1000 years, 1461 years or even 12 994 years. These numbers do not fit any cyclic patterns we know, and as far as I know nobody has identified the nature of these patterns. I have an idea that these 'cyclic periods' could represent the rare conjunction of Venus to the Sun (exact by both longitude and declination)? Transits of Venus across the disk of the Sun are among the rarest of planetary alignments, when it last occurred on 2004, June 8th, it was for the first time since 1882; 122 years, this figure parallels the age of the oldest person that has ever lived; Jeanne-Louise Calment, who died at 122 years old on August 4, 1997 in her native France. These conjunctions sometimes occur in pairs with eight years between [6], the next one is in 2012. The Chinese have a two-phoenix symbol.

© Anne Wright 2008.