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In 1 Clement, the author uses the phoenix as proof of resurrection, a tradition also preserved by Pliny the Elder in his Natural Histories, who similarly describes the worm that grows from the dead bird and the journey to the city of the Sun.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Pliny the Elder, Pliny Natural History 10.2
Classical
He tells us that no person has ever seen this bird eat, that in Arabia it is looked upon as sacred to the sun, that it lives five hundred and forty years, that when it becomes old it builds a nest of cassia and sprigs of incense, which it fills with perfumes, and then lays its body down upon them to die; that from its bones and marrow there springs at first a sort of small worm, which in time changes into a little bird: that the first thing that it does is to perform the obsequies of its predecessor, and to carry the nest entire to the city of the Sun near Panchaia, and there deposit it upon the altar of that divinity.
Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 25:2
First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians
Early Christian
1 Let us consider the marvelous sign which is seen in the regions of the east, that is, in the parts about Arabia. 2 There is a bird, which is named the phoenix. This, being the only one of its kind, lives for five hundred years; and when it has now reached the time of its dissolution that it should die, it makes for itself a coffin of frankincense and myrrh and the other spices, into which in the fullness of time it enters, and so it dies. 3 But, as the flesh rots, a certain worm is engendered, which is nurtured from the moisture of the dead creature and puts forth wings. Then, when it has grown strong, it takes up that coffin where are the bones of its parent, and carrying them journeys from the country of Arabia even to Egypt, to the place called the City of the Sun.
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Notes and References
“... Very popular in Christian iconography, in patristic tradition, the phoenix signified the resurrection of Jesus (Clement of Rome, 1 Ep. Cor. 1.25–26; Tertullian, Res. Carn. 1.13; Lactantius, Carmen de ave phoenice 169–70; etc.). [...] However, other ways to generate worms are attested for the phoenix: a worm is generated from the dead phoenix as a larva for a new one (Pliny, Nat. Hist. 10.2); in the Nag Hammadi On the Origin of the World the “worm that has been born out of the phoenix is a human being.” ...”
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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