A fabulous bird: the Phoenix


The Phoenix is a fabulous bird, known for its longevity and characterized by its ability to rise from its own ashes after death. It thus symbolizes the cycles of death and resurrection. Georges Cuvier (1769-1832) identified it with the golden pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus). It has also been associated with the bird of paradise.
Other fabulous birds similarly called Phoenix appear in Chinese (fenghuang) and Persian (simurgh) mythology.
MYTHOLOGY
The Arabian Phoenix
A 13th-century Arab tale, written by Attar in The Conference of the Birds, tells a mystical epic in which the birds search for their king, the Simurgh, and finally reach his palace beyond the seven seas, only to discover that they themselves are the Simurgh and that Simurgh is both one and all.
The Phoenix was also depicted on glass bottles used to store poisons. In this way, the Arabs believed they were protected from poisoning.

The Greek-Egyptian Phoenix
The first mention of the Phoenix appears in Hesiod, the earliest Greek poet of whom we have historical records.
Here are the verses from the enigmatic fragment 50:
Of nine strong men, thus the talkative crow
lives her life; the deer of four crows, and the raven
becomes as old as three deer. The Phoenix, then, lives
for nine ravens; for ten Phoenixes we live,
beautiful curls, daughters of Zeus, the aegis-bearer.
Herodotus is the first to provide a detailed version of the myth, discussing it in the second book of his Histories, which is dedicated to Egypt:
II, 73. “There is also another sacred bird called the Phoenix. I have never seen it, except in paintings; for, among other things, it appears among them only rarely: every 500 years, according to the priests of Heliopolis; and it is said to appear when its father dies.For size and shape, if it is as it is painted, it is as follows: the feathers of its crest are golden, the others are red; above all, it is very similar to an eagle in shape and size. They say that it performs a deed like this (but in my opinion, the story is not credible): namely, leaving Arabia, it carries its father, wrapped in myrrh, to the temple of the sun, and buries him in the sanctuary of the Sun.
To transport him, it would do the following: first, they say, it mixes myrrh with an egg, as large as it can carry; then it tries to keep it lifted, and when it is thus trained, having emptied the inside of the egg, it places its father inside. Then, with more myrrh, it coats the part where it has emptied the egg and introduced its father, so that, with him inside, the original weight is restored; having thus wrapped him, it carries him to Egypt to the sanctuary of the Sun. This is what they say about this bird.”
Herodotus, who likely draws his information from Hecataeus of Miletus, describes the Phoenix as a true bird that can be assimilated to Bennu, a sacred bird of Egypt. Bennu is a manifestation of the god Ra and the god Osiris. Its song is so beautiful that even the gods are enchanted by it, but its most important characteristic is its ability to live for many centuries, even five, before dying in a magnificent fire from which it is immediately reborn. The ancient Egyptians were the first to speak of the Phoenix as Bennu, a name derived from the verb benu, which means to shine, rise, or soar in flight. The Pyramid Texts refer to a bird similar to a heron that appeared on the first hill that emerged from the primordial waters, and in the rest of the tradition, there is no mention of its immortality.

The Most Suitable Bird to Represent It: The Little Egret
The bird most suited to represent the Phoenix is the Little Egret: a species of bird related to the heron, numerous examples of which were exterminated simply because their plumes were used to make the "aigrettes" that adorned the heads of actresses. Just as the heron, when it took flight, seemed to mimic the rising of the sun from the water, the Phoenix was associated with the sun and symbolized the BA ("soul") of the sun god Ra, of whom it was the emblem — so much so that in the later period, the hieroglyph of the Bennu was used to represent Ra directly.
According to others, the Phoenix described by Herodotus does not refer to Bennu but is the Greek variant of the Eastern myth of the sun bird, which would have symbolized the "great year," the time required to complete an equinoctial cycle.
The Roman Phoenix
Ovid, in his Metamorphoses - XV, 392 - places the Phoenix in Assyria:
There is a bird that renews and reproduces itself alone:
the Assyrians call it the Phoenix; it does not live on fruits or herbs,
but on tears of incense and cardamom juice.
The Latin historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus speaks of the Phoenix in his Annals:
During the consulate of Paullus Fabius and Lucius Vitellius [elected consuls in 34 AD], after the long passing of centuries, the Phoenix bird arrived in Egypt, and to the most learned among the natives and the Greeks, it provided an occasion for many discussions about this marvel. I am pleased to report the things on which they agree and the even more numerous things that are disputed, but which are worth knowing.This animal is sacred to the Sun, and those who have depicted its appearance agree that it is different from all other birds in appearance and the variety of colors of its feathers: concerning the number of its years, various figures are given. The most common duration is 500 years: there are some who claim that an interval of 1,461 years occurs, and that the previous birds, first under the reign of Sesostris [Sesostris III, 1878-1843 BC], then during the time of Amasis [569-526 BC], and later during the time of Ptolemy, the third king of Egypt of Macedonian descent [Ptolemy Euergetes, 247-222 BC], arrived flying to the city of Heliopolis, with a large retinue of all the other birds, astonished by its singular appearance.
But certainly, events of the past are uncertain: between Ptolemy and Tiberius [emperor from 14 to 37 AD] there were less than 250 years. Therefore, some have considered this Phoenix to be false, not originating from the lands of the Arabs, and that it had not done any of the things that ancient tradition had established.Thus, upon completing its number of years, when death approaches, it builds a nest in its territory and infuses it with the vital strength from which the newborn emerges; once it becomes an adult, its first concern is to bury its father, and it does not do so casually, but after lifting a burden of myrrh and testing it over a long distance, when the weight is right for the journey to be made, it supports its father's body and carries it to the altar of the Sun and burns it. These things are uncertain and exaggerated by legends: however, there is no doubt that sometimes this bird is seen in Egypt.
The Christian Phoenix
The mythical bird elegantly evokes the creator and destroyer fire. Like the sun, fire symbolizes the fecundating action that, by consuming itself, purifies and enables regeneration. Lucifer, the "light-bringer" who fell into hell, embodies fire that does not consume and excludes regeneration. In contrast, the Phoenix adheres to the symbolism of fire and the initiatory rites of death and rebirth.
In some cremation rites, fire is also considered a vehicle: the messenger from the world of the living to that of the dead. Likewise, the Phoenix is often a star, indicating its celestial nature and life in the afterlife.

The Middle Ages saw the Phoenix as a symbol of the resurrection of Christ.
We must also remember that the griffin is a representation of Christ, deriving from the fact that it is a creature of both land (lion's body) and air (bird's wings). The terrestrial part represents the body of Christ and His presence on Earth among men, while the aerial part represents the spirituality of God.