Phoenix_(mythology)
In European culture
In English culture, the Phoenix is ​​a mythical bird, very beautiful and unique in its kind, which, according to legend, lives in the western desert for 500 or 600 years, burns itself on a pile of debris, and from the resulting ashes, he himself once again. He emerges with a youthful freshness and begins and passes another round of life. Phoenix in European culture is often an allegory of immortality and eternal life. Phoenix originally entered European culture from ancient Iran. During the eight centuries BC, the Phoenix bird is mentioned in nine references, eight of which have come down to us through quotations from later authors, and only one case by Herodotus, a Greek historian from 484 to 424 BC, is preserved in full. remained. Another Greek, Claudius Aelianus, also known as Aelian, wrote about Phoenix 200 AD: "Phoenix keeps the arithmetic of 500 years correct without the help of arithmetic or finger counting, because he learns everything from nature, which is the whole intellect. Although it seems necessary to know about Phoenix, among the Egyptians - perhaps only a handful of priests - no one knows when 500 years will pass, but at least we need to know where Egypt is and Heliopolis where Phoenix is. "Where is it and what kind of coffin does this bird put its father in and where does it bury it?" According to the English text, this historian calls Phoenix's father a father, but calls Phoenix the neutral form (it). Subsequent authors have often used the feminine form for Phoenix, but since this bird is a unique myth and its offspring did not derive from mating, the discussion of its sex did not seem to be very important. A Roman historian named Publius Ovidius Naso, better known as Ovid, is the first Roman to write about Phoenix in Latin. "How many creatures walk on earth today, but in the beginning they were different. There is only one being that will remain forever as it was from the beginning, that is, it will remain unchanged for many years, and finally, after extinction, it will be born again in its original form. This is a bird that the Assyrians, or in some sources probably the Syrians or the Phoenicians, call the phoenix. This bird does not eat ordinary seeds and grass, but eats fruit extracts and rare spices. When he is 500 years old, he builds a nest on a tall palm tree and with his fork makes a bed for himself from the finest materials, from tree bark to cinnamon and other spices and gums, and then he dies and his soul travels far away with fragrant smoke and steam, and the story It goes on to say that a small phoenix then rises from the chest of his lifeless body to live, as they say, another 500 years, and at that time, after his old age, he found the necessary courage to raise his throne and nests where his father is buried. A tall palm tree sets in motion and begins its journey to the city of the sun, where the Phoenix Nest Temple shines brightly in the Temple of the Sun. ” From all that has been said about the phoenix in European culture, two general accounts of the phoenix can be given: First, Phoenix arises from his father's lifeless body and takes his father's body to the city of Heliopolis and burns it on the altar of the Temple of the Sun; And another narration is that the phoenix burns in a pile of fragrant wood and debris, flutters its wings and ignites a flame, burns itself in the fire, and from its ashes another phoenix is ​​born. So, in a nutshell, this myth can be said in European culture: "The phoenix burns in the fire and is born again from its ashes." In this regard, it is common in English to say, "Every fire may contain a phoenix.