Arizona republican., 1897-12-01

would enable the priests to represent it as bird endowed with swift wings symbolic of the flight of tinne. The Sothic period being reckoned from the heliacal rising of Sirius, it is also sun, and why it appeared to the priests at the Heliopolis by whom the observations were made. Lastly, since the cycle repas itself in endless succession, its duration is everlasting, and hence the secret of the immor- tality of the Phoenix.
 The only point that needs further elucidation is the period. Tacitus re- laltes that the first Phoenix appeared in the reign of Rameses II (who was called by the Greeks Sesostris); and we learn from Censorfnus that a Sothic period was completed A. ID. 139; therefore that period must have begun B. c. 1922.
 This epoch falls within the limits of the various dates assigned to ahe reign of Rameses by different chron- l ologists- -dates which hinge mainly 1 upon differnt interpretations of the somewhat uncertain dynasSic success | ions recorded in the fragments of Mamsthos history preserved by Jo- sephus- and agrees perfectly with the time assigned ito RameSeS II by Sir i Gardner Wilkinson. Tacitus relates 1 that a Phoenix also appeared in the reign of Amasis (B. c. 564-526) and am other in the time of Ptolemy III-Eu- ergetes I (B. c. 247-222), and finally | in the year 34 A. D. Now it is evil | dent that the periods here mentioned
 are very unequal and cannot be rec onciled to any fixed interval. Taci- | tus does not hesitate ito question the
 genuine ness of the last Phoenix, and
 we know from other authorities that
 a Phoenix exhibited at Rome during
 the celebration of the secular games
 in the year of the city 800 GA. D. 46)
 was in like manner an impOsture. | Therefore since the period seems to
 be 1,461 years, we may venture to
 suggest that none of the PhOenixes re-
 ported by Tacitus are genuine except
 the first which appeared under the
 reign of the Great Rameses. The in- ! terval of 1,461 years, however, is so
 very long that only one in a great
 many generations could ever hope to
 witness the celebration of its compile
 tion; therefore it is likely that cer-
 tain kings ambitious to glorify their |
 the completion of some numerical
 part of the Sothc or Phoenix period
 and proclaim as a special sign from
 heaven the coming of the sacred
 Phoenix. All the Phoe1ixes reported by Tacitus, (except that of 34 A. D..
 when Egypt was under Roman sway)
 appeared in the reigns of very power
 full kings, and this circumstance add:
 decided plausibility to the suggestion
 just advanced, which seems indeed the
 only reasonable explanation of the ir-
 regular intervals.
 : It is therefore probable that the
 story of the Phoenix was devised a
 the beginning of the new Sothic peri.
 cd in the reign of Rameses tht
 Great, and proclaimed by the learnef : hierarchy in mystic symbolism to tht common people. This king was great patron of art and science, am :, the institution of the sacred Phoeniy as a new religious symbolism to marl
 the beginning of a great epoch ex
 tending over centuries is i1 keepin:
 with the ambitious designs of hi.
 victorious reign
 Therefore, since. Sirius was in an ; tiquity fiery red, the Sothic period ex ! plains in particularly happy man
 her all the essential charac.eris ic of the mysterious Phoenix srea
 age and soliltariness in the world; it
 color and sacredness to the sun, hoy it burns itself up and new Dir . 2 arlses from the glowing ashes. it . Arabian origin and appearance l: He . iiopo!.s, lastly why the sym5oliZatio,
 assumed the form of bird---an :, hence it seems to me that the theOr u advanced ough. to have som u claim to acceptance, particularly sine '. all the theories which I have hithert :. a read fail signally to explain why tn q q symbolism took the form of Dir u with swift wings, how it consume A and regenerates itself, and the yer l. great age to which it attains.
 ..' If the theory here advanced be tru ee the legend of the Phoenix in tur ,l a adds to the certainty of the anciel "a redness of Sirius, which was ther ,u fore red not only in the time of HI .l ,4 mer, but also in the time of Ramese <. <. and probably from the very dawn ,o ,o the ancient Egyptian civilization. 70 There is perhaps no more typic ~, example of the mysticism characte ~, ,e istic of Egyptian learning under u ~ Pharaohs than that furnished by t, . marvellous story of the Phoenix -r certainly the most wonderful al ,xr , mysteriously beautiful of all t 70 charming myths which have descen ITO ed to us from the poetic lore of t :, earIV aleeS