Diffusion in later culture editSee also:
Over time, the phoenix motif and concept spread beyond its Greek folklore roots. For instance, the Gnostic manuscript On the Origin of the World, which is generally dated to the fourth century and is part of the Nag Hammadi Library collection in Egypt, carries over the classical motif of the phoenix:[30]
An anonymous 677-line alliterative poem from the ninth century, found in the anonymous Old English Exeter Book of the tenth century, begins with a paraphrase and abbreviation of Lactantius and explains the Phoenix as a metaphor for the resurrection of Christ. [31].
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Þisses fugles gecynd fela gelices bi þam gecornum Cristes þegnum; beacnað in burgum hu hi beorhtne gefean þurh Fæder fultum on þar frecnan tid healdaþ under heofonum & him heanna blæd in þam uplican eðle gestrynaþ. |
This birds nature is much like to the chosen servants of Christ; pointeth out to men how they bright joy through the Fathers aid in this perilous time may under heaven possess, and exalted happiness in the celestial country may gain. |
| In the original Old English[citation needed] | In Modern English translation (1842)[32] |
The phoenix is mentioned by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri in Canto XXIV of the Divine Comedy’s Inferno, written in the fourteenth century.
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Così per li gran savi si confessa che la fenice more e poi rinasce, quando al cinquecentesimo anno appressa; erba né biado in sua vita non pasce, ma sol dincenso lagrime e damomo, e nardo e mirra son lultime fasce. |
Even thus by the great sages tis confessed The phoenix dies, and then is born again, When it approaches its five-hundredth year; On herb or grain it feeds not in its life, But only on tears of incense and amomum, And nard and myrrh are its last winding-sheet. |
| In the original Italian | In English translation |
Diogenes Teufelsdröckh uses the phoenix as a metaphor for the cyclical pattern of history in Thomas Carlyle’s novel Sartor Resartus from the 19th century. He remarks on the “burning of a World-Phoenix” and the “Palingenesia, or Newbirth of Society” from its ashes:
Phoenixes can be found in European heraldry, which dates back to the High Middle Ages and is comparatively common. They are most frequently seen as crests and less frequently as charges. The head, chest, and wings of an eagle rising from a fire are represented as the heraldic phoenix; the full creature is never shown. [34].
Early texts edit
A fragment of the Precepts of Chiron, attributed to the Greek poet Hesiod in the eighth century BC, contains the earliest known mention of the phoenix in ancient Greek literature, aside from the Linear B mention from Mycenaean Greece mentioned above. The sage centaur Chiron imparts the following knowledge to the youthful hero Achilles in the fragment,[clarification needed][8] stating that the phoenix’s lifetime is 972 times longer than that of a long-lived human:
Etymology edit
The Latin word that gave rise to the modern English word “phoenix” was later reinforced by French. The word originally appeared in English when Old English borrowed it from Latin phoen?x (fenix). Later, French influencewhich had also appropriated the Latin nounreinforced this borrowing. Over time, the term acquired specific usage in the English language: it could be used to describe a “great individual” from the 12th century, a type of heraldic symbol from the 15th century, or the name of a constellation from the 17th century. [5].
The Latin word comes from Greek ?????? (phoinix). First recorded in the Mycenaean Greek word po-ni-ke, which most likely meant “griffin” though it could also have meant “palm tree.” The word “madder” is most likely derived from a West Semitic word for the red dye Rubia tinctorum is used to make. Seemingly deriving from the same root, the word Phoenician means “those who work with red dyes.” The meaning of phoenix could therefore be “the purplish-red bird” or “the Phoenician bird.”
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