The Phoenix Down-Low

[vovat]

Today, in my weekly mythology post, I'm going to take a look at a symbol of rebirth. You're free to join me if you'd like, but I guess you don't have to. Anyway, the phoenix quite possibly originated in Egypt, but was often associated with India, because of its similarity to the bird-god Garuda. After 500 years of life, the bird would burn itself up, leaving behind an egg. It was often associated with the Sun, and not surprisingly, Christians came to use it as a symbol of Jesus' resurrection. It's also been commonly used in relatively modern fantasy, a few examples that immediately come to my mind being Edith Nesbit's The Phoenix and the Carpet, Dumbledore's pet Fawkes in the Harry Potter series, the life-restoring Phoenix Down in the Final Fantasy games, and the shape-shifting phoenix in Terry Pratchett's Carpe Jugulum.

What a phoenix looks like is never totally clear. Apparently, the Egyptians portrayed it as a stork-like bennu, and the Greeks and Romans as more eagle-like. Here are a few pictures that I found on the Internet:



The phoenix is also associated with the Persian Simurgh (also a character in the Xanth books) and two birds from Chinese mythology, namely the rooster-beaked Fenghuang and the Vermilion Bird of the South.



The former is the ruler of all birds, and the latter one of the Four Symbols found in Chinese astrology. The other three are the Dragon, the Tiger, and the Tortoise. And since I can't seem to get through a post these days without mentioning Oz, The Mysterious Chronicles of Oz gives the Original Dragon (who is introduced but not viewed onstage in Tik-Tok of Oz) the other sorts of animals as companions, only with a unicorn instead of a tiger. And that's a good transition into what I hope to talk about next week, which is the unicorn.

Comments

[i3uffalogirl.livejournal.com]

My first introduction to the Phoenix was Feng Huang from "Big Bird in China." :) I have been intrigued ever since.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I can't recall if I ever saw "Big Bird in China." I DID see Follow That Bird at the theater, though.

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

A lot of your examples are griffen (griffin)-like as well.

Since coming to Atlanta, I've been partial to the Phoenix, the symbol of the city since Reconstruction.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there is some similarity to griffins, although I have to say my favorite depiction of a griffin is the lion-eagle mix, like in Alice in Wonderland.