See also: Phoenix

The phoenix (of the old Greek φοῖνιξ / phoinix ) is a fabulous bird, endowed with longevity and characterized by its capacity to reappear after being itself consumed under the effect of its own heat. It thus symbolizes the cycles of dead and resurrection.

Georges Cuvier (1769-1832) saw in him the Pheasant golden (Chrysolophus pictus). It was also identified with the bird of paradise.

Myth

The Arab phoenix

The Arab phoenix is called simurghe. It was painted on bottles out of glass to move away the poisons. In this way, Arabic thought of being preserved of any poisoning.

The Greek phoenix

The first mention of the phoenix is in an enigmatic fragment of Hésiode:

“The crow babillarde saw nine generations of flourishing men of youth; the stag saw four times more than the crow; the corbel ages during three ages of stag; the phoenix saw nine ages of the corbel and we live ten ages of phoenix, us, Nymphe S with the beautiful hair, girls of Zeus armed with the the aegis. ”

Hérodote is the first required a detailed version of the myth:

“One as arranges in the same class another bird as phoenix is called. I saw it only in painting; it is seldom seen; and, if one believes the Héliopolitains of them, it is shown in their country only the every five hundred years, when his/her father has suddenly died. If it resembles its portrait, its wings are partly gilded and partly reds, and it is entirely in conformity with the eagle as for the figure and detailed description. One reports of it a characteristic which appears incredible to me. It leaves, say the Egyptians, of the Arabia, goes to the temple Sun with the body of his father, whom it carries wrapped in Myrrhe, and the burial in this temple gives him. Here how: it makes with myrrh a mass in the egg shape, weight which it believes able to carry, raises it, and tests if it is not too heavy; then, when it finished these tests, it digs this egg, introduced there his father, then it stops the opening with myrrh: this egg is then of the same weight than when the mass was whole. When it has it, I say, contained, it carries it to Egypt in the temple of the Sun. ”

Hérodote, which probably draws its information from Hécatée de Milet, thus regards the phoenix as a real bird, which it brings closer to the Bénou, an Egyptian crowned bird. Living on the Benben or the crowned willow of Héliopolis, the bénou is a manifestation of the god Re and the god Osiris; it is associated with the sothiaque cycle. However, certain details quoted by Hérodote do not tally with the Egyptian designs: thus of the appearance every 500 years and the burial of the father. One suggested a bad comprehension by Hérodote of the Egyptian symbol: he would have interpreted like a physical filiation the relation between the bénou and the divinities of which he is the Bâ (temporary demonstration). According to others, the phoenix which Hérodote describes would actually not have a relationship with the bénou, but would be the Greek alternative of the Eastern myth of the bird of the sun; this phoenix would have symbolized very early the “great year”, i.e. duration necessary to a equinoctial cycle complete, and its association with the sothiaque cycle would be posterior.

The Roman phoenix

“Whereas at Ovide, Pline and Tacite, the old phoenix breaks up to generate the new one, it is at Martial and Stace that the topic of roughing-hew appears, by analogy with the Roman funerary practices. ” (Francoise Lecocq, the Roman Emperor and the Phoenix , p. 28).

Under the Roman Emperor Claude (fifth emperor) simultaneously a moon eclipse, a tidal wave and a cyclone appear which are right of the last newborn which turned over to Héliopolis. Its flight finishes on the island of Théra (Santorin).

The emperor empaille the bird and places it in a temple to Rome. The effigy of the phoenix is reproduced on the currencies of Trajan and Constantin I {{er}}. The animal also sits in the left hand of the statues of Mercure.

The Christian phoenix

The mythical bird thus evokes also creative and destroying fire. Like the Sun, Fire symbolizes the fertilizing action. While consuming, it purifies and allows regeneration. Lucifer, the “carrier of light”, precipitated in the flames of the hell, incarnates the fire which does not consume and excludes from regeneration. On the contrary, the phoenix joined the symbolism of the fire of the initiatory rites of died and rebirth.

In certain ritual cremations, fire is also regarded as vehicle or messenger of the world of alive towards that of deaths. In the same way, the phoenix often carries a star which indicates its celestial nature and the life in the other world. All the Moyen-âge saw in him the symbol of the resurrection of the Christ.

The griffon was also a representation of Christ, coming owing to the fact that it is a terrestrial animal (body of lion) and air (wings of bird). The terrestrial part representing the body of Christ and her presence on Earth among the Men and the air part representing “God”, his spiritual part.

Heraldic

The phoenix (or phoenix), imaginary heraldic Figure, is a bird on one to rough-hew in flames. This bird resembles the heraldic Aigle much and it is even sometimes defined like one of its alternatives. It is represented of face, head of profile, extended wings, on its roughing-hew, called “immortality”.

Opposite weapons of Malet de Lussart: of azure to a phoenix on its immortality, looking at the sun, the gold whole, which illustrates well parentée with the eagle, considered only able to look at the sun opposite.

The phoenix and literature

In Antiquity, Tacite speaks about it in its Annales (6, 28) and Solin mentions it (38,1). The Carmen of ave phœnice , allotted to Lactance is one of the ancient texts richest on this fabulous bird. With the Rebirth, Rabelais mentions it in the the Fifth Book (V, 29, How us visitasmes Satin country):

“I there vy fourteen Phoenixes. I worts leu as various autheurs who in estoit only one in everyone, for a aage; but, according to my small judgment, those which have escrit of it veirent any onques elsewhere only with the country of tapestry, even was this Lactance Firmian. ”

Of Bartas devotes a long development in the to him Fifth Day of Sepmaine or the Creation of the world (v. 551-598):

“Celestial Phœnix began its ouvrage
By the terrestrial Phoenix, decorating of such a plumage
Its members revivans that annual the flambeau
De Cairan as far as Fez void nothing more beautiful. ”

At the 18th century, the phoenix feeds imaginary several authors of fantastic or marvellous accounts. One finds it for example in the philosophical tale of Voltaire, the Princess of Babylon .

Nowadays, one of the most known representations is that of J.K. Rowling in its best-seller Harry Potter , where one finds Fumseck, the phoenix of Dumbledore, of which two feathers were used with manufacture of the rods as Harry and Voldemort, its rival who dreams to kill it. It also appears in the books illustrated by Jane Ray, Ground, Feu, Eau, Air and Mythological Contes .

Etymology

The Greek term φοῖνιξ / phoinix returns to several directions: the bird itself, but also the red color, the Toponym and the Ethnonyme “Phénicie N”, the Date palm. Its etymology remains still mysterious: one suggested an Egyptian origin - the name of the bird bnu , pronounced *boin- , would have been adapted in phoinix in Greek - or a Semitic origin , and more particularly phenician.

References

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