Phoenix — The Immortal Firebird

Herodotus's phoenix had no fire

The earliest detailed Greek description, in Herodotus's Histories Book 2, is more cautious and stranger than the familiar legend. Herodotus says he never saw the bird himself except in paintings. The priests at Heliopolis told him it visits Egypt only once every five hundred years, when its father dies. In appearance it is like an eagle in outline and size, with plumage partly golden and partly red. The bird comes from Arabia carrying its dead father sealed inside an egg of myrrh: it first moulds an egg as large as it can carry, hollows it out, places the father inside, plasters the opening with more myrrh, and brings the whole bundle to the temple of the sun. Herodotus adds flatly that he does not believe the story.

There is no burning and no rising from ashes in this account. The bird is a dutiful son performing a funeral, which fits Greek ideas of piety towards parents as much as any notion of resurrection.

How the legend changed

Later writers each added pieces, and they did not agree.

• Hesiod already knew the bird as a byword for long life. A fragment quoted by Plutarch makes the phoenix live nine times as long as a raven, which in turn lives many generations of men; the nymphs outlive even the phoenix tenfold.
• Ovid, in the speech of Pythagoras in Metamorphoses Book 15, says the phoenix eats not grain or herbs but drops of incense and balsam. After five centuries it builds a nest in the top of a palm with cassia, nard, cinnamon and myrrh, and dies among the spices. A young phoenix is born from the father's body; when strong enough, it carries the nest, its own cradle and its father's tomb, to the city of Hyperion, meaning Heliopolis. Again, no flames.
• Pliny the Elder cites the Roman senator Manilius: the bird lives 540 years, and from its bones and marrow a small worm emerges that grows into the new bird. Pliny also reports that a phoenix was brought to Rome and displayed in the Comitium in AD 47, under Claudius, though, he adds, no one doubted it was a fake.
• Tacitus records a sighting in Egypt in AD 34, notes that the interval was variously given as 500 or 1,461 years, and describes the young bird carrying its father's body to the altar of the sun to be burned.

The full fire version, in which the bird itself bursts into flame and is reborn from the ashes, becomes standard in Roman imperial and early Christian literature. The Physiologus, a Christian handbook of animal symbolism, has the phoenix burn on the altar at Heliopolis and reappear on the third day, an explicit parallel to the Resurrection. Lactantius's Latin poem On the Phoenix (around AD 300) and the letter known as 1 Clement also used the bird as evidence that rising from death was possible.

The Egyptian connection, and a word with many meanings

Herodotus ties the bird to Heliopolis, the cult centre of the sun god, and many scholars link it with the Egyptian benu, a sacred bird associated with the sun and with creation. The fit is imperfect. The benu was usually shown as a grey heron with a long double crest, not a red-gold eagle, and Egyptian texts do not describe it carrying a dead parent in myrrh or burning itself. The Greek phoenix may be a blend of Egyptian temple lore, Arabian spice-trade tales and Greek imagination. For the wider relationship, see Greek vs Egyptian mythology; the sun's own Greek gods appear under Helios.

The Greek word phoinix is unusually versatile. It can mean a crimson or purple-red colour, a Phoenician, the date palm (the tree Ovid's bird nests in), and a stringed instrument. It is also the name of several people in myth, most famously Phoenix, the old tutor of Achilles in the Iliad, and Phoenix, brother of Cadmus and, in most versions, of Europa (Homer makes him her father), who gave his name to Phoenicia. None of these figures has anything to do with the bird.

What modern versions add

Several features now treated as standard are not in the ancient sources. Healing tears, the ability to carry very heavy loads and loyalty to a single wizard are best known from J.K. Rowling's Fawkes in the Harry Potter books. The phoenix as a fire elemental or a bird that regenerates whenever it is killed is a fantasy game convention. The ancient bird was defined by rarity, an immense lifespan and its relationship to the sun, and only one existed at a time. It belongs alongside other enduring Greek mythological symbols and has its place among Greek mythical creatures, though it was never a monster.

Ancient sources

• Herodotus, Histories 2.73 — the phoenix of Heliopolis, its five-hundred-year visits, its red and gold plumage, and the myrrh egg containing its dead father; Herodotus says he doubts the story.
• Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.391–407 — Pythagoras describes the bird that renews itself from its father's body in a spice nest at the top of a palm.
• Pliny the Elder, Natural History 10.3–5 — Manilius's account of a 540-year cycle and the worm that grows into a new bird; the phoenix displayed in Rome under Claudius.
• Tacitus, Annals 6.28 — the sighting in Egypt in AD 34 and the competing figures for the bird's lifespan.
• Hesiod, fragment quoted in Plutarch, On the Obsolescence of Oracles — the riddle comparing lifespans of the crow, stag, raven, phoenix and nymphs.
• Lactantius, De ave phoenice — the late-antique Latin poem that fixed the fiery, Christianised version of the legend.

Frequently asked questions

Is the phoenix Greek or Egyptian?

The phoenix legend is known mainly from Greek and Roman writers, who set it in Egypt and Arabia. It is often linked with the Egyptian benu bird, but the two differ considerably.

Did the ancient phoenix burst into flames?

Not in the earliest accounts. Herodotus and Ovid describe no fire; the burning and rebirth from ashes became standard in Roman imperial and early Christian writings.

How long does a phoenix live?

Most often 500 years, but ancient writers also gave 540 and 1,461 years, and some made it far longer.

Is the phoenix connected to Phoenix, the tutor of Achilles?

No. They share a Greek word, phoinix, which also means red-purple, Phoenician and date palm, but the hero and the bird are unrelated.