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What is the Phoenix?
How is it related to Egyptian mythology?
Are there any good sites where I can get a lot of info?

2006-11-16 03:43:52 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture Mythology & Folklore

5 answers

In ancient Egyptian mythology and in myths derived from it, the phoenix or phœnix is a mythical sacred firebird.

Said to live for 500 or 1461 years (depending on the source), the phoenix is a bird with beautiful gold and red plumage. At the end of its life-cycle the phoenix builds itself a nest of cinnamon twigs that it then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix arises. The new phoenix embalms the ashes of the old phoenix in an egg made of myrrh and deposits it in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis ("the city of the sun" in Greek). The bird was also said to regenerate when hurt or wounded by a foe, thus being almost immortal and invincible — a symbol of fire and divinity.

Although descriptions (and life-span) vary, the phoenix (Bennu bird) became popular in early Christian art, literature and Christian symbolism, as a symbol of Christ, and further, represented the resurrection, immortality, and the life-after-death of Jesus Christ.

Originally, the phoenix was identified by the Egyptians as a stork or heron-like bird called a benu, known from the Book of the Dead and other Egyptian texts as one of the sacred symbols of worship at Heliopolis, closely associated with the rising sun and the Egyptian sun-god Ra.

2006-11-16 04:24:10 · answer #1 · answered by dg153l 3 · 1 0

Phoenix Egyptian Mythology

2016-12-18 07:53:43 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Not much. The birds associated with Egyptian mythology are generally hawks and cranes. Phoenixes have longer histories in East Asian countries.

The Egyptian sources cited below are Ptolemaic Greek Egyptians - not Egyptian at all, but a sort of mixture between Greek and Egyptian (and Phoenician) ideas. Egypt's growing role in trade in the post Dynastic period led to it being seen as an 'exotic source' of many magical or mythical things. People thought other countries were cool even back then, just like we do now.

2006-11-16 03:46:46 · answer #3 · answered by Cobalt 4 · 0 0

In ancient Egyptian mythology and in myths derived from it, the phoenix or phœnix is a mythical sacred firebird.

Phoenix(Bennu, Benu)

The Bennu was the sacred bird of Heliopolis. Bennu probably derives from the word weben, meaning "rise" or "shine." The Bennu was associated with the sun and represented the ba or soul of the sun god, Re. In the Late Period, the hieroglyph of the bird was used to represent this deity directly. As a symbol of the rising and setting sun, the Bennu was also the lord of the royal jubilee.

The Bennu was also associated with the inundation of the Nile and of the creation. Standing alone on isolated rocks of islands of high ground during the floods the heron represented the first life to appear on the primeval mound which rose from the watery chaos at the first creation. This mound was called the ben-ben. It was the Bennu bird's cry at the creation of the world that marked the beginning of time. The bennu thus was the got of time and its divisions -- hours, day, night, weeks and years.

The Bennu was also considered a manifestation of the resurrected Osiris and the bird was often shown pirched in his sacred willow tree.

The Bennu was known as the legendary phoenix to the Greeks. Herodotus, the Greek historian, says the following about the Bennu:

"Another sacred bird is the phoenix; I have not seen a phoenix myself, except in paintings, for it is very rare and only visits the country (so they say at Heliopolis) only at intervals of five hundred years, on the occasion of the death of the parent bird."

The planet Venus was called the "star of the ship of the Bennu-Asar" (Asar is the Egyptian name of Osiris). The Bennu was also sometimes associated with Upper Egypt.

2006-11-16 05:07:16 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

i am not sure that the phoenix is IN egyptian mythology, i believe it originated elsewhere, (i'll look in my books at home and get back to you)

but it is a firebird red and yellow in color and became consumed by it's own fire and rose again from it's ashes, signifying resurrection and immortality.
the bird was also known as a pelican that fed it's young from springs of blood coming from it's breast, signifying sacrifice.
lastly, it was a mythological bird of initiation where one left behind old beliefs and resurrected into new ones by gnosis of the mystery schools.

2006-11-16 06:13:57 · answer #5 · answered by cliffy 3 · 1 0

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