The Phoenix

The phoenix is a mythical bird in Greek tradition, closely associated with the sun and known for a long life that renews itself in a fixed cycle, most often every five hundred years. Greek and Roman writers describe its rebirth in two ways. In one, the phoenix decays on its nest of spices and a new bird grows from its body, beginning as a worm, and carries the remains to the altar of the sun at Heliopolis in Egypt. In the other, the phoenix burns itself on its nest and a new bird rises from the ashes. Rabbinic tradition identifies the phoenix with a bird in Job 29, apocalyptic texts such as 3 Baruch and 2 Enoch describe it as an escort of the sun, and Christian writers such as Clement of Rome and Tertullian refer to it as a sign of resurrection.