tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29497063680719927362024-03-13T16:23:30.496-07:00phoenixabyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16369403454806981346noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2949706368071992736.post-30797658953137192972009-08-05T23:45:00.000-07:002009-08-11T00:47:22.704-07:00mythologyThe <b>phoenix</b> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_language" title="Ancient Greek language" class="mw-redirect">Ancient Greek</a>: Φοῖνιξ, phoínix) is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythology" title="Mythology">mythical</a> sacred <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_bird_%28mythology%29" title="Fire bird (mythology)">firebird</a> which originated in the ancient mythologies mentioned in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanchuniathon" title="Sanchuniathon">Phoenician</a> Mythology and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_religion" title="Ancient Egyptian religion">Egyptian</a> and later the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Mythology" title="Greek Mythology" class="mw-redirect">Greek Mythology</a>.<br /><br />A phoenix is a mythical bird with a colourful plumage and a tail of gold and scarlet (or purple, blue, and green according to some legends). It has a 500 to 1,000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrrh" title="Myrrh">myrrh</a> twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again. The new phoenix is destined to live as long as its old self. In some stories, the new phoenix embalms the ashes of its old self in an egg made of myrrh and deposits it in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis (sun city in Greek).<br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:times new roman;" >wikipedia</span>abyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16369403454806981346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2949706368071992736.post-34020607802597782122009-08-05T23:43:00.000-07:002009-08-11T00:47:22.716-07:00History<div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavius_Philostratus" title="Flavius Philostratus" class="mw-redirect">Flavius Philostratus</a> (c. AD 170), who wrote the biography Life of Apollonius of Tyana, refers to the phoenix as a bird living in India, but sometimes migrating to Egypt every five hundred years. His account is clearly inspired by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garuda" title="Garuda">Garuda</a>, the bird of the Hindu god <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu" title="Vishnu">Vishnu</a>. He considered the bird as an emanation of sunlight, being in appearance and size much like an eagle. His contemporary <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactantius" title="Lactantius">Lactantius</a> is probably the author who wrote the longest poem on the famous bird. Although descriptions (and life-span) vary, the Egyptian phoenix (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bennu" title="Bennu">Bennu</a> bird) became popular in early <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity" title="Christianity">Catholic</a> art, literature and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_symbolism" title="Christian symbolism">Catholic symbolism</a>, as a symbol of Christ representing his <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurrection" title="Resurrection">resurrection</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immortality" title="Immortality">immortality</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afterlife" title="Afterlife">life-after-death</a>. One of the Early Catholic Church Fathers, Clement, related the following regarding the Phoenix in chapter 25 of <i>The First Epistle of Clement</i>: <blockquote> <p>Let us consider that wonderful sign [of the resurrection] which takes place in Eastern lands, that is, in Arabia and the countries round about. There is a certain bird which is called a phoenix. This is the only one of its kind, and lives five hundred years. And when the time of its dissolution draws near that it must die, it builds itself a nest of frankincense, and myrrh, and other spices, into which, when the time is fulfilled, it enters and dies. But as the flesh decays a certain kind of worm is produced, which, being nourished by the juices of the dead bird, brings forth feathers. Then, when it has acquired strength, it takes up that nest in which are the bones of its parent, and bearing these it passes from the land of Arabia into Egypt, to the city called Heliopolis. And, in open day, flying in the sight of all men, it places them on the altar of the sun, and having done this, hastens back to its former abode. The priests then inspect the registers of the dates, and find that it has returned exactly as the five hundredth year was completed.</p> </blockquote> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">Michael W. Holmes points out that early Christian writers justified their use of this myth because the word appears in Psalm 92:12 [LXX Psalm 91:13], but in that passage it actually refers to a palm tree, not a mythological bird.However, it was the flourishing of Christian Hebraist interpretations of Job 29:18 that brought the Joban phoenix to life for Christian readers of the seventeenth century. At the heart of these interpretations is the proliferation of richly complementary meanings that turn upon three translations of the word chol (חול) — as phoenix, palm tree, or sand — in Job 29:18. <sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_%28mythology%29#cite_note-1"><span></span><span></span></a></sup></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">In a critical edition of I Clement, Lake noted that "the same story, with variations, is found in Herodotus (ii. 73), Pliny (<i>Nat. Hist.</i> x.2), etc."<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_%28mythology%29#cite_note-2"><span></span></a></sup></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">Originally, the phoenix was identified by the Egyptians as a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stork" title="Stork" class="mw-redirect">stork</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heron_%28bird%29" title="Heron (bird)" class="mw-redirect">heron</a>-like bird called a <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bennu" title="Bennu">benu</a></i>, known from the <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_the_Dead" title="Book of the Dead">Book of the Dead</a></i> and other Egyptian texts as one of the sacred symbols of worship at Heliopolis, closely associated with the rising <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun" title="Sun">sun</a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_mythology" title="Egyptian mythology" class="mw-redirect">Egyptian</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_deity" title="Solar deity">sun-god</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra" title="Ra">Ra</a>.</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greeks" title="Greeks">Greeks</a> identified it with their own word <i>phoenix</i> <b>φοίνιξ</b>, meaning the color purple-red or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimson" title="Crimson">crimson</a> (cf. <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenicia" title="Phoenicia">Phoenicia</a></i>). They and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_mythology" title="Roman mythology">Romans</a> subsequently pictured the bird more like a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peacock" title="Peacock" class="mw-redirect">peacock</a> or an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle" title="Eagle">eagle</a>. According to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_mythology" title="Greek mythology">Greeks</a> the phoenix lived in Phoenicia next to a well. At dawn, it bathed in the water of the well, and the Greek sun-god <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios" title="Helios">Helios</a> stopped his chariot (the sun) in order to listen to its song. Featured in the painting <i>Heracles Strangles Snakes</i> (House of the Vettii, Pompeii Italy) as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeus" title="Zeus">Zeus</a>, the king of the gods.</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">One inspiration that has been suggested for the Egyptian phoenix is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamingo" title="Flamingo">flamingo</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Africa" title="East Africa">East Africa</a>. This bright pink or white bird nests on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playa" title="Playa">salt flats</a> that are too hot for its <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_%28biology%29" title="Egg (biology)">eggs</a> or chicks to survive; it builds a mound several inches tall and large enough to support its egg, which it lays in that marginally cooler location. The convection currents around these mounds resembles the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbulence" title="Turbulence">turbulence</a> of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flame" title="Flame">flame</a>. In zoology, flamingos are part of the family <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenicopteridae" title="Phoenicopteridae" class="mw-redirect">Phoenicopteridae</a>, from the generic name <i>Phoenicopterus</i> or "phoenix-winged."</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">"Phoenix" is also the English-language name given to the most important bird in Chinese mythology, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenghuang" title="Fenghuang">fenghuang</a>, with its own set of characteristics and symbolic meanings.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: times new roman;">wikipedia</span><br /></p>abyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16369403454806981346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2949706368071992736.post-40480133701703762802009-08-05T23:40:00.000-07:002009-08-11T00:47:22.735-07:00Related usage<div style="text-align: justify;"> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nadir_Madrasah_Phoenix.JPG" class="image" title="Phoenix on the portal of Nadir Divan-Beghi madrasah (part of Lyab-i Hauz complex)"><img alt="" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/Nadir_Madrasah_Phoenix.JPG/200px-Nadir_Madrasah_Phoenix.JPG" class="thumbimage" width="200" height="150" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;" class="thumb tleft"><div class="thumbinner" style="width: 202px;"> </div> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Empire" title="Persian Empire">Persian</a> mythology, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simurgh" title="Simurgh">Simurgh</a>, (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_language" title="Persian language">Persian</a>: سيمرغ, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Persian" title="Middle Persian">Middle Persian</a>: senmurv) was a winged, bird-like creature that was very large and extremely ancient. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simurgh" title="Simurgh">Simurgh</a> appears in many Iranian literary classics such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Farid_ud-Din_Attar&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Farid ud-Din Attar (page does not exist)">Farid ud-Din Attar's</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conference_of_the_Birds" title="The Conference of the Birds"><i>Conference of the Birds</i></a> as instructor and birds leader, and in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdowsi" title="Ferdowsi">Ferdowsi's</a> epic <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahnameh" title="Shahnameh">Shahnameh</a></i> (The Book of Kings); <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simurgh" title="Simurgh">Simurgh</a> raised up and cherished Zaal or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zal" title="Zal">Zal</a>, father of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rostam" title="Rostam">Rostam</a>.</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;" class="thumb tright"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 182px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fenghuang.JPG" class="image" title="The Fenghuang in the Summer Palace, Beijing, China."><img alt="" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2c/Fenghuang.JPG/180px-Fenghuang.JPG" class="thumbimage" width="180" height="240" /></a> </div> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">The phoenix the central figure in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon" title="Lebanon">Lebanese</a> ancient and modern cultures, as Lebanese are descendants of the Phoenicians and often claim themselves sons of the Phoenix.<sup class="noprint Template-Fact" title="This claim needs references to reliable sources from December 2008" style="white-space: nowrap;"></sup>Lebanon, and Beirut particularly, is often depicted symbolically as a phoenix bird having been destroyed and rebuilt 7 times during its long history.</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China" title="China">China</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenghuang" title="Fenghuang">Fenghuang</a> ("鳳凰") is a mythical bird superficially similar to the phoenix. It is the second most-respected legendary creature (second to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon" title="Dragon">dragon</a>), largely used to represent the empress and females. The phoenix is the leader of birds.</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan" title="Japan">Japan</a>, the phoenix is called hō-ō(kanji:"鳳凰") or fushichō <span style="font-weight: normal;">(<span class="t_nihongo_kanji" lang="ja" lang="ja">不死鳥</span><span class="t_nihongo_help noprint"><sup><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Installing_Japanese_character_sets" title="Help:Installing Japanese character sets"><span class="t_nihongo_icon" style="padding: 0pt 0.1em; color: rgb(0, 0, 238); font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; font-size: 80%; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; text-decoration: none;">?</span></a></sup></span>)</span>, literally "Immortal Bird".</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia" title="Russia">Russian</a> folklore, the phoenix appears as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhar-Ptitsa" title="Zhar-Ptitsa" class="mw-redirect">Zhar-Ptitsa</a> (Жар-Птица), or firebird, subject of the famous 1910 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Firebird" title="The Firebird">ballet score</a> by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Stravinsky" title="Igor Stravinsky">Igor Stravinsky</a>. The phoenix was featured in the flags of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Ypsilanti_%281792-1828%29" title="Alexander Ypsilanti (1792-1828)" class="mw-redirect">Alexander Ypsilantis</a> and of many other captains during the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Revolution" title="Greek Revolution" class="mw-redirect">Greek Revolution</a>, symbolizing Greece's rebirth, and was chosen by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Capodistria" title="John Capodistria" class="mw-redirect">John Capodistria</a> (1828-1832). In addition, the first modern Greek currency bore the name of <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_phoenix" title="Greek phoenix">phoenix</a></i>. Despite being replaced by a royal Coat of Arms, it remained a popular symbol, and was used again in the 1930s by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Hellenic_Republic" title="Second Hellenic Republic">Second Hellenic Republic</a>. However, its use by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regime_of_the_Colonels" title="Regime of the Colonels" class="mw-redirect">military junta of 1967-1974</a> made it extremely unpopular, and it has almost disappeared from use after 1974, with the notable exception of the Greek <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Phoenix_%28Greek_order%29" title="Order of the Phoenix (Greek order)" class="mw-redirect">Order of the Phoenix</a>). It was introduced by Johann Bayer in 1603.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: times new roman;">wikipedia</span><br /></p>abyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16369403454806981346noreply@blogger.com0