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Phoenix

#1 {lang:macro__useroffline}   Neraphym {lang:icon}

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Posted 13 June 2005 - 02:09 PM

QUOTE
Egyptian Phoenix



The Phoenix, it was said, appeared in Egypt only once every five hundred years. When the Phoenix was born in the depths of Arabia he flew swiftly to the temple of Heliopolis with the body of his father which, coated with myrrh, he there piously buried.

The Bird Bennu is considered a sacred animal in Egypt. Although he was purely legendary, the ancients did not doubt his reality. Worshipped at Heliopolis as the sould of Osiris, he was also connected with the cult of Ra and was perhaps even a secondary form of Ra. He is identified, though not with certainty, with the Phoenix who, according to Herodotus' Heliopolitan guides, resembled the eagle in shape and size, while Bennu was more like a lapwing or a heron. [New Larouse Encyclopedia of Mythology]

The phoenix was the incarnation of the sun as it appeared at the moment of creation alighting on the Benben stone, and was created from the fire buring at dawn on the sacred persea tree at Heliopolis; alternatively it sprang from the heard of Osiris. It was represented as a huge golden hawk with a heron's head, so that the Greeks identified the Bennu bird with the phoenix, a sort of eagle with red and gold wings. According to Herodotus, the Bennu bird was born in the pastures of the temple; but it was rarely seen there, for it appeared only every five hundred years, bringing the body of its recently deceased father to the temple in an egg made of myrrh.

Ra was represented as the Bennu bird, which rose at dawn from the Benben stone and with its voice heralded the good tidings of creation. It was thought that Ra rose from the primeval waters enclosed withing the petals of a lotus blossom, which enfolded him once more when he returned to it each night; or that he rose in the shape of a phoenix, the bennu bird, and alighted on the pyramidal top of the obelisk, the benben stone which symbolized a ray of the sun. This was the most sacred object in the temple of Ra at Heliopolis. [Egyptian Mythology, Veronica Ions, Hamlyn, 1965]

Egyptians identified the Phoenician god Phoenix with their Bennu bird, a spirit of the benben, or phallic obelisk. He rose to heaven in the form of the Morning Star, like Lucifer, after his fire-immolation of death and rebirth. In Phoenicia as in Egypt he embodied the sacred king cremated and reborn. Symbolic burning of the king continued up to the present century in Upper Egypt, on the first day of each solar year by Coptic reckoning. The king's soul released above the pyre assumed bird form, as ancient pharaohs at their cremation took the form of the Horus-hawk. [The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, Barbara G. Walker; Harper and Row, 1983]

The name of the phoenix means a god of Phoenicia. The original "bird" was probably the horned, winged sun disc, which resembled that of Egypt but appeared more birdlike in Mesopotamian iconography. It was the sun who flew on wings through heaven and was constantly immolated and reborn from the fires of sunset and sunrise. Egypt's phoenix was sometimes identified with the Bennu bird, a heron sacred to Osiris, symbolizing both the human soul and the god's cycle of rebirth and resurrection. Sometimes the bird represented the morning star.

Greeks gave the phoenix the name of Kerkes (Circe). In Turkey the legend of the phoenix was incorporated into that of Simurgh. According to the Haggadah, the phoenix is a vast sun bird who "spreads out his wings and catches the fiery rays of the sun." On these wings are enormous letters, saying, "Neither the earth produces me, nor the heavens, but only the wings of fire."

In the most popular medieval version of the legend, the phoenix was supposed to live for several centuries and then build its own funeral pyre, light it with a burning twig, throw itself on the flames, burn up, and then arise newborn from the ashes. [The Women's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects, Barbara G. Walker; Harper and Row, 1988]

Although the phoenix legend is common to many ancient civilizations, the origin of the myth of the Phoenix is attributed to the Egyptians — a civilization obsessed with the search for eternity. The phoenix symbolizes immortality, resurrection and life after death. In that aspect it was often placed on sarcophagi. The bird appeared on ancient Egyptian and Roman coins.

The phoenix of ancient Egyptian mythology is named "Bennu", meaning "the Ascending One", deriving from the word weben, meaning "rise" or "shine." The Benu symbolizes rebirth as it rises from the ashes. The phoenix burns itself in its nest on the hill at sunset and is reborn the next morning. The hill, was located on the Flaming Isle of Re in the East, where the sun rises. The phoenix represents the sun,which dies at night and is reborn in the morning.

During earlier periods of Egyptian history the Bennu name was associated with various birds: the crane, the heron, the stork or the flamingo and was usually depicted as a heron, but also as a peacock or an eagle in classic literature. The Bennu, an imaginary bird, later became more clearly identified with the heron with its long straight back and head adorned at the back with two long erect feathers on the crest of it's head and was often crowned with the Atef crown of Osiris (the White Crown with two ostrich plumes on either side) or with the disk of the sun.

The deities Re (Ra) and Atum were akin to the phoenix's symbolic meaning. Associated with the sun god, Re and because of its birdlike nature, the phoenix was called "ba of Re", the soul of the sun god was believed to be a birdlike spiritual being. In the Late Period, the written symbol, the hieroglyph, for sun was the phoenix and was used to represent this deity directly. As a symbol of the rising and setting sun, it is the Sun Bird, emblem of Ra.

As a deity of creation and life, the phoenix is considered to be a living manifestation of the resurrected Osiris — said to spring forth from his heart as a living symbol of the god. The phoenix was called "the famous ba, which came out of the heart of Osiris". The planet Venus was called the "star of the ship of the Bennu-Asar" (Asar is the Egyptian name of Osiris). The Bennu, sometimes associated with Upper Egypt, was also the lord of the royal jubilee. There was a connection to the deity Kepera (the scarab-god), the Lord of Life and Death.

At Koptos in Egypt, the Bennu bird is depicted with two human arms stretched upwards and outwards toward the star Sothis- Sirius , which appears in the early sky before the sun rises. The Phoenix/Bennu bird is said to arise "at dawn from the waters of the Nile". Linked with summer, the Bennu was also associated with the inundation of the Nile and of the creation. Standing alone on isolated rocks of islands of high ground during the floods the heron represented the first life to appear on the primeval mound which rose from the watery chaos at the first creation. This mound was called the ben-ben.

The brilliantly red and golden plumed Bennu was the sacred bird of Heliopolis. Heliopolis is found just to the northeast of modern Cairo. It was said to create itself from the fire that burned on the top of the sacred Persea tree in Heliopolis. The sun rose in the form of the Bennu. The Bennu lived on the ben-ben stone or obelisk within the sanctuary of Heliopolis and was worshipped alongside Ra and Osiris. It was politically and spiritually powerful during the Old Kingdom. It is the site of the first known sun temple, which was dedicated to Re-Hekarte. Today, only a single relic remains standing at the site. The obelisk of Senwosret I now marks the location.

According to the Heliopolitans, the first act of creation occurred when the sun god Atum, "lord of Heliopolis", rose out of the chaos of Nun from a lotus flower and stood on a raised mound he created, the ben-ben. This first act of creation brought light into the world. At the site of his emergence, the temple of Heliopolis was built. Atum was called a self-created god or the child of Nun. He was also said to be the ben-ben. At the time of the Pyramid Texts, Atum became identified with Re. As Atum-Re, he was connected to the Bennu bird (the phoenix).

The Bennu was later named Phoenix by the Greeks. He was a kind of primordial god, which built its nest on the willow on the top of the primordial hill. Bennu was often shown perched in his sacred willow tree.


Tanken from http://leadingtonear...earch/EgyP.html



Also,

The Pheonix is best known for its glorious death and rebirth cycle. When it came time for the pheonix to die, it would catch fire and burn down to ashes. From these ashes arose a pheonix chick. These birds are said to be eagle-like in appearance, and are most often pictured as having crimson red and scarlet plumage. In my opinion, the pheonix is one of the most beautiful mythological creatures.
Neraphym Archaeon
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#2 {lang:macro__useroffline}   Hax the Cook {lang:icon}

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Posted 13 June 2005 - 03:26 PM

YAY for pheonexes! (sp?)

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QUOTE
Jesus says:
p3n0r.
~ JGJTan ~ Devils dance while angels smile says:
WOOT

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........../\__ _\.........../\ \........................
..........\/_/\ \/......___..\ \ \/'\.....____...........
.._______....\ \ \..../' _ `\.\ \ , <..../',__\.._______.
./\______\....\_\ \__./\ \/\ \.\ \ \\`\./\__, `\/\______\
.\/______/..../\_____\\ \_\ \_\.\ \_\\_\\/\____/\/______/
..............\/_____/.\/_/\/_/..\/_//_/.\/___/..........



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#3 {lang:macro__useroffline}   Neraphym {lang:icon}

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Posted 13 June 2005 - 03:42 PM

Heh, I messed up... aparantly, to o comes before the e.
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#4 {lang:macro__useroffline}   Aaron {lang:icon}

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Posted 13 June 2005 - 04:26 PM

Neat, I didn't know that Phoenixes originated from Egyptian mythology.
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#5 {lang:macro__useroffline}   Yevgeny Borisovitch Volgin {lang:icon}

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Posted 11 January 2006 - 03:58 PM

Nor did I, and I just revived this topic and this forum 'cause no-one posted in the forum since last month! Go me!

I've always liked phoenixes, 'cause they're fiery birds. I like fiery chicken and its especially good when it's baked 'til golden brown. drooling3.gif

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This post has been edited by TheWyvern321: 11 January 2006 - 03:59 PM

(wyv btw)
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