The history of ancient Greek has many symbols and characters of human and mythological beings which
play important roles and are worshipped as God and Goddesses. Bird of yore, thePhoenix birdis one such mysterious
creatures.
The Phoenix the fire-bird is a sacred and auspicious creature and is believed to live for five
hundred years and has different tales in different culture. The Egyptian culture closely associates
the bird with fire and the sun and it was often seen with the sun God. It is much larger than other
birds with plumage coloured in gold, crimson, violet etc. No one knows exactly how the bird looked
like all thePhoenix bird pictureswe find are of artistic imagination.
The legend has it that the Sun happened to see this bird in red and golden feathers and blessed it
with the words that it would be His bird and will live forever. The Phoenix was overjoyed and said
that it would sing songs for the Sun God alone. Since the bird was sought after for its feathers it
decided to fly far away towards the east to a place which was not inhabited by humans. Here it
nested and sang in praise of the Lord.
Five centuries passed and thePhoenix birdbegan growing old and weak. It prayed to the sun
to make it young and strong but its prayers were not heard. So the phoenix made the decision to go
back to its place of origin. The journey was long and tiresome and the bird rested on the way,
picking up pieces of cinnamon bark and fragrant leaves. When at last it reached home and landed on
a tall palm tree, where it built a nest with the cinnamon bark and fragrant leaves and made egg
from myrrh, a sharp scented gum.
The Phoenix again prayed to the Sun God to make it young and strong. This time the Sun answered its
prayers and it showered its bright rays on the bird. There was a flash of bright light and soon the
bird was engulfed by fire. The flames soon died down and the Phoenix had disappeared. Then all of a
sudden from the ash there arose a new young Phoenix. It soon grew to its old big size. It flew away
with its egg in its claws to the temple of the Sun at Heliopolis and placed the egg with the ashes
inside on the suns altar.
The bird then flew off to the same far away place and the legend is that it still lives there.
Every five hundred years, when it feels weak and old it returns to the place of its origin, builds
a nest on the same palm tree and the Sun again burns it to ashes from which arises a new young
Phoenix to resume the life cycle. This is the reason why it is related to Phoebus, the Sun God the
symbol of resurrection and immortality which is so much related to strength.. Even now Phoenix bird
pictures are used as symbol of strength and immortality.
