Phoenix
creatureA magnificent bird that lived for centuries before burning to death in a nest of spices and being reborn from its own ashes. The ultimate symbol of renewal.
The Myth
The Phoenix was a singular creature — only one existed at any time. It was an enormous bird with brilliant plumage of gold, scarlet, and purple, and it lived for five hundred years (some accounts say longer). When its life neared its end, it built a nest of aromatic twigs — cinnamon, myrrh, and spikenard.
The Phoenix ignited itself and the nest, burning with intense heat until nothing remained but ashes. From these ashes, a new, young Phoenix arose, born again from the death of the old. The reborn bird would gather the ashes of its predecessor, encase them in an egg of myrrh, and carry them to the temple of the sun god in Heliopolis, Egypt.
Though the Phoenix originates partly from Egyptian mythology, it was adopted wholeheartedly by the Greeks. It became the supreme symbol of immortality, resurrection, and the cyclical nature of time — the idea that endings are also beginnings.
Parents
Self-renewing
Symbols
Fun Fact
Phoenix, Arizona, was named after the mythical bird — the city was built on the ruins of a Hohokam settlement, "rising from the ashes" of a former civilization.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth: