Phoenix Ancient Mythical bird

One of the creation myths from the ancient Egyptian city Heliopolis tells of a Mythical Bird. In that myth, there is an account of the 'first dawn' when the world was said to have emerged from an 'infinite, lifeless sea' called 'Nun', in a distant period known as "the first occasion" when a bird skimmed over the waters of the Nun until it opened its beak and a cry echoed over the waters of the Nun. The world was filled with ‘which it had not known, and then the sun rose for the first time. The cry of the that Bird thus determined what is and is not to be’. that bird was named by Egyptians as Benu Bird and was considered as an aspect of Atum, who brought life and light to the world.

    The Benu’s cry had begun the cycle of time, which the Egyptians believed to be divinely appointed. The Temple of the Benu Bird at Heliopolis was primarily concerned with the regulation of the calendar and the Benu Bird itself became the deity concerned with the division of time. At Heliopolis, where the bird deity Bennu was venerated, it was said to be living on the Benben stone or on the holy willow tree.

    The Greeks named the Egyptian Benu Bird the Phoenix. The earliest clear mention of the phoenix in ancient Greek literature occurs in a fragment of the Precepts of Chiron, attributed to 6th century BC Greek poet Hesiod. In the fragment, the wise centaur Chiron tells a young hero Achilles the phoenix's lifetime is 972 times the length of a long-lived human's:

    Classical discourse on the subject of the phoenix attributes a potential origin of the phoenix to Ancient Egypt. Herodotus, writing in the 5th century BC, provides the following account of the phoenix:

[The Egyptians] have also another sacred bird called the phoenix which I have never seen, except in pictures. Indeed it is a great rarity, even in Egypt, only coming there (according to the accounts of the people of Heliopolis) once in five hundred years, when the old phoenix dies.       Its size and appearance, if it is like the pictures, are as follows: The plumage is partly red, partly golden, while the general make and size are almost exactly that of the eagle. 

    According to various Greek accounts, Phoenix is a legendary bird without parents and offspring. It nurtured itself in sunlight and sea spray. Brilliant in appearance, its feathers were gold, red, and white; its eyes were green as the sea. A semi-immortal being, the Phoenix had a lifespan of 500 years and when about to die, it drew new life from the primal elements of fire and water and was born again. It would build its nest in the form of a funeral pyre and a single clap of its wings would ignite it. Then, when consumed by the flames, a young Phoenix would arise from its own ashes. The Greeks considered the appearance of the Phoenix as a herald of important events to come.

    Scholars have observed analogs to the phoenix in a variety of cultures. These analogs include the Persian Simorgh, the Arabian Anqa, the Turkish Konrul, the Russian firebird, the Georgian Paskunji, Chinese Fenghuang, the Hindu  Bherunda, and the Japanese Hō-ō.

by Zaheeruddin Babar