THE PHOENIX BIRD

For 2500 years from Hecataeus (500 B.C.) to the present time, historians, naturalists, philosophers, poets, saints-with affirmations or denials, with fact or fancy, by heresy or de visu-have told the story of a certain PHOENIX BIRD. All have mentioned its resurrection, most of the time out of flames; and, in one way or the other, they have related this to the Sun City or the Valley of the Sun. Ovid (43 B.C.-17 A.D.) said: "Most beings spring from other individuals; but there is a certain kind which reproduces itself. The Assyrians call it the PHOENIX. It does not live on fruit or flowers, but on frankincense and odoriferous gums. When it has lived 500 years, it builds itself a nest in the branches of an oak, or on the top of a palm tree. In this, it collects cinnamon, and spikenard, and myrrh, and of these materials builds a pyre on which it deposits itself, and dying, breathes out its last breath amidst fragrances. From the body of the parent bird, a young PHOENIX issues forth, destined to live as long a life as its prede-cessor. When this has grown up and gained sufficient strength, it lifts its nest from the tree (its own cradle and its parent's sepulchre) and carries it to the city of Heliopolis in Egypt, and deposits it in the Temple of the Sun." Reports of Pliny, Tacitus, Herodotus, and Saint Clement all state the fact that this "Bird of Two Hundred Births" reappeared at regular intervals. Some say 500 or 600 years. Some say one thousand. In fact, some have preferred as little as three hundred fifty or so insignificantly short an interval as every day. Strange figures such as seven thousand six or fourteen hundred sixty have also been mentioned. (These were derived from the Sothic Cycle, which regulated the calendar of the Egyptians, calculated on the star Sirius, of the Canis Major constellation, the brightest in heaven.) Plutarch (46-120 A.D.) refers to the PHOENIX legend as already existing in the 8th century B.C. and he quotes the poet Hesiod: "The noisy Crow lives nine generations of Men who are in the bloom of years; the Snake attains the age of four Crows: the Raven, in its term, equals three Snakes in length of days, while the PHOENIX lives nine Ravens. The Nymphs, fair of tresses, daughters of Jove, attain to the age of ten PHOENIXES." An Ancient, Hipparque, taking a human generation as 26% years calculated that the PHOENIX lived 25,920 years! In contrast to such a fantastic claim, Tacitus (1st century A.D.) is amazingly precise: "The bird appeared first under Sesostris (or better Senousret, of the 12th Roman dynasty of the Pharaoh 2,000-1788 B.C.), then under Amasis (during the 26th dynasty 569-526 B.C.), and again under the 3rd Ptolemy, Evergetus (247-222 B.C.), and once more in the consulship of Paulus Fabius (34 A.D.) This last appearance was "doubtful" the writer believes, because it was too close to the previous one, which he did not doubt! .. A PHOENIX shown in Rome in the year of the Secular Games (47 A.D., celebrating the 8ooth anniversary of Rome) was universally admitted to be an imposture.

If the bird, and all historians agree that there was only one, came from somewhere in the direction of the rising sun, was said to live in a "Sacred Wood" or in "Paradise," then what did he look like? "He did not seem to be extremely large," said Herodotus, "and he is for the most part very much like an eagle in outline and bulk." Later, an Arabic bird of medieval time called the Anka (Persian Semurgh) similar to the Roc (Rukb) of Marco Polo and the Arabian Nights, borrowed some features of the PHOENIX. The Anka, also appeared in cycles of seventeen hundred years. There were several, however, both males and females. Payne refers to an Arabian author Kazweenee "The Anka carries off the elephant," he says, "as the cat carries off the mouse." In the 10th century Arabian writers described the PHOENIX BIRD as the "Salamandra." "Sashes" they say "were made with his feathers, and to cleanse them you had only to throw them in the fire, for they would come out of it clean." This, indeed, is a poor observation. If the PHOENIX BIRD calcinated himself to ashes, why should his feathers turn into non-inflammable material? Ingersoll, in Birds in Legend, believes that the import of asbestos from the Orient has originated the tale. No one knew if asbestos was vegetable, the hair of a rat-like animal, or feather. It is likely that the first encounter with the fibrous asbestos was in the form of some cloth, and that the fuzzy surface was thought of as being down and therefore the connection with the PHOENIX. Later when Arabians began manufacturing and selling it, they gave the asbestos cloth the name of samand.

The bird is called PHOENIX obviously, because he is reddish purple (from the Greek phoinix, purplish-red). That his head, his breast, and his back were scarlet, his wings were of many colors and shown iridescently, his eyes sea-blue, and his feet Tyrolean purple was of common knowledge in antiquity. Herodotus agrees, but someone insisted that "He is wearing on his head a single star and it may be that he was identified with Venus as Morning or Evening star." Colorful also was Solinus (3rd century A.D.) version: ". as large as an eagle. Its head is surrounded with tufts of feathers, its neck shines like gold; the rest of its body, purple except the tail, which is sky blue mingled with rose color.Another writer precises: "This giant Sun Bird is surrounded by a halo of light, and, like the gates of Apollo, his feathers number three hundred sixty-five."

The fabulous beauty of the bird, his love for desert fragrance, the fact that there was but one (his association with the sun of which there is only one), and his regular cyclical rebirth are recognized by all; but the mechanics of his rebirth vary considerably. Some said the new bird rose from the ashes already adult; others, that he grew for nine days, many, that "from the liquid of the body, a worm emerged ." In any case, the infant would take the calcinated nest, and carry away the ashes, or the bones, of his "father"Sometimes, strangely enough, there is no fire at all: ". the PHOENIX rises with the Sun and runs before his chariot, absorbing and softening the rays as they fall. He flies thus throughout the entire day, and by evening he is so exhausted from the heat of his burden that he must plunge into the Nile or the sea and be refreshed and rejuvenated before he can take up his task next day. (It is also said that the golden crown of the Sun is so tarnished by the sins of the world over which he passes that, while the PHOENIX bathes and the earth is dark, it must be taken away and polished.") Horapollo (5th century) does not refer to flames: "From the tree the bird casts himself on the ground and receives a wound, from the ichor of which the new PHOENIX springs." Many early observers believed this to be typical of eagles, and, confused, added legend to legend!

Finally, in describing the bird in the legend, it is important to quote what is said of his voice: "At dawn the PHOENIX roused himself in his nest, turned his eyes eastward and lifted his voice in a hymn to the Sun. No mortal ever heard this song, but it was fabled to be far more beautiful than the song with which the dying swan gives up its life, or the lyre of Orpheus...."

In the Middle Ages magical Alchemy, preceded scientific chemistry, above symbolism and Kabalistic signs were known as PHOENIX.

MUREX From these shells Phoenicians extracted royal purple (Phoinix) dyes. Expensive, it was first king's privilege, today bishops'. Where lies the PHOENIX' power, its beauty, its constant youth? Maybe it all comes from his food; and if you also want to be renewed "Go into a Sacred Wood, alone, and do not feed on grasses nor insects, but on pure air. Do not sustain yourself with earthly food, but nourish thee off the nectar of the passing stars and the pungent aroma that rises with the Sun out of the desert." If Horapollo and Tacitus speak of the PHOENIX as a symbol of the Sun, many Egyptian texts, especially the Book of the Dead, relate a certain bird called "bennu" with the worship in the temple of Heliopolis (the City of the Sun). "Wiedemann (Encyclopaedia Britannica) has made it clear that the benmu was a symbol of the rising sun, whence it is represented as "self-generating" and called "the soul of Ra (the sun)"... "the heart of the renewed Sun." In Egyptian religion Ra, or Ammon during the day, became Osiris during the night. Dawn was a birth; dusk, death. The divine traveler came back to life out of the womb of his mother Nout ... All the mystic symbolism of the morning sun, especially in connection with the doctrine of the future life, could thus be transferred to the benmu. "The hieroglyphic figure of the bennu is that of a heron, and the gorgeous colors and plumed head spoken of by Pliny, Herodotus and others, would be least inappropriate to the purple heron, but could be the colors of Sunrise. Some say that a Purple Heron was ceremoniously sacrificed by the priests of Heliopolis at a grand celebration once every five hundred years. Others say that an eagle, with feathers painted to look like a PHOENIX was burned alive in the pyre of spices and branches of palm trees." In the Bible, we find only one dubious allusion to our bird. Some commentators understand the word chol, in Job XXIX, 18 to apply to the PHOENIX. This translation is perhaps as old as the (original) Septuagint (in King James version, "sand"), and is current with the later Jews: "I shall die in my nest, and shall multiply my days as the sand." In fact The Jewish Publication Society of America translates it: "I shall die with my nest and I shall multiply my days as the PHOENIX." We find that there is a difference in the spelling of the Greek words: chl is sand, and chol is Phoenix. According to the Talmud, Eve, after eating the terrible fruit in the Garden of Eden, tried to force it, and its consequences, on all the animals, but the bird chol (the Phenix) would not eat, but flew away from temptation, and thus preserved its original gift of perpetual life. "And now the PHENIX lives a thousand years, then shrivels up till it is the size of an egg, and then from himself emerges beautiful again.

PHOENICIAN FLEET ON A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY - Old etching by P. Philippoteaux (19th cent.). Great Traders, Navigators, for thousands of years until Christ. Phoenicians dealt with imports, exports, "tourisme" and business around the Mediterranean Sea. They invented alphabet (22 letters), glass, etc., mined copper and silver. Called North Star, the Phoenician Star. Today Phoenicia is Lebanon.

EGYPTIAN BUILDING A TEMPLE-Such was "Heliopolis" where the PHOENIX bird was bringing "father's" ashes every 500 years

So far we have learned this: the legend, as we know it, is thousands of years old. Strangely the interest in the PHOENIX comes back, typical of various historical periods-Sun worship in Egypt, mythology in Greece or Rome, Christian resurrection with the new faith, heraldry in the Middle Ages, commercial designs in present times. Would it be possible to detect today at least which bird or birds have been at the origin of this legend? Could it be that descriptions of birds unknown to the Western Civilizations have motivated fabulous tales and touched off imagination in periodic blasts? We know that even the earliest of the great civilizations were amazingly in touch with far away countries. The Egyptians sailed around Africa (under Nechao-600 В.С.), couriers walked thousands of miles in merchants' and explorers' trails, contacts were established by a few intrepid traders, who returned with odd souvenirs and tales set aflame by exaggerated memories. Scientific analysis, logical conclusions, did not exist; fearful superstition, impulsive magical marvels, led all beliefs. Poetic by nature, sometimes bombastic, prone to parables, the near eastern natives could dream about migratory birds in flight during sunset-reappearing at regular intervals-or farway birds glamorized by local legends reported by scouts-or living birds acquired by trade, brought back by relays-or skins of dead birds whose fantastic shape and plumage spurred exaggeration growing from one or another's imagination! We ought to remember that many plants, trees, fruits, animals, were not yet transplanted or domesticated-some of the most common today were unknown to the Mediterranean civilizations. Gallinae (chicken, pheasant, peacocks, etc.) were not widely known in Biblical time. Actually seen, or only heard of-which bird or birds could claim the paternity of our PHOENIX? We have mentioned the purple heron, but there is little in his habits, mannerisms, and appearance to make him our fabulous beast-perhaps only his regular return for the mating season. But he perches among reeds, not on the tops of trees, and flies in couples. The crane travels in large groups, and nests on the ground. As for the heron, he goes into frantic dances and utters a piercing call, the Phoenix is not known for any of this. The flamingo, of course, is by name a red bird (phoenicopterus family); the French call it a flamant, from flamme, as do we-flames or flamingo. Besides his name there is little in common with the PHOENIX.

Storks, swans, pelicans, have been compared or mentioned with no convincing proofs.

The Far East may perhaps furnish a source for the inspiration for the origin of the PHOENIX. There we find pheasants, from Asia, especially the golden pheasant of China, which is basically red and gold. His relative, the giant Argus (Argusianus argus), is an extraordinary, coppery hidden creature with fantastic wings and a straight tail sometimes reaching 6 feet in length. The eye-like decoration on his wings occasioned his being called "the Prince with a hundred eyes of which fifty never close and to whom Juno has given the watch over lo, priestess of Hera." Не lives in the forest of Malaysia and utters a strange love call in the mating season.

From Ceylon and India comes the popular brown and bluegreen peacock. A poor flier, he likes to perch high.

King Solomon (973-930 B.C.), I Kings X, 22; 2 Chron. LX, 21, had put hens and peacocks in his palace. They were imported by his "Navy of Tarshish," which every year brought precious birds, ivory, and apes, so that when the Queen of Sheba in her memorable trip from Arabia to Jerusalem visited him, she was amazed by these peacocks and was given their tongues for a meal!

When Alexander the Great reached India (332 B.C.), he was amazed by the discovery of this bird. He brought some back to Europe. In Greece, they were exhibited for money as a curiosity. In Rome the importance of the peacock grew as a religious symbol, pagan first then Christian.

In the foothills of Himalaya hides the lophophorus or monaul. He is about 27 inches long, with copper, purple, red colors, gold and green and black in spots. He has a white marking on his back amidst blue feathers, a green-gold crest.

Tales about any of these, or their composites could physically fit the PHOENIX, but yet another might be the answer-the Bird of Paradise! His name originated because the Papuans (natives of New Guinea) prepared skins for exportation, mutilating the legs. "They had no feet and lived in Paradise," said a companion of Magellan, bringing one back to the king of Spain in 1522. Only a bird living in Heaven could have such colors! He was supernatural! For centuries, before the white men came, skins of the Bird of Paradise were sent to Chinese Emperors.

PHOENIX dactylifera or date palm was imported to Arizona from Arabia and Algeria. (Phoenix C. of C. Photo)

GREAT SEAL OF THE CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO

In China were four spiritual animals: the Dragon, the PHOENIX, the Tortoise, and the Unicorn. The Dragon was the emblem of the Emperor, the PHOENIX of the Empress. But is this Phoenix ours? Its true name, Feng-Huang, is a combination of Feng, the male bird, and Huang, the female. Also Bird of the Sun (though its later title, Bird of Fire, may be due to Jesuit influence as well as the term Phoenix to translate it), it is chief among the birds and in its flight is said to be accompanied by a thousand others. In no way, however, can we find the legend of rebirth from Fire. Fürthermore, the Feng-Huang mate to reproduce and there is more than one bird. The five colors of its plumage (red, azure, yellow, white, and black) represent the five cardinal virtues (uprightness, bumanity, virtue, honesty, and sincerity), and the devotion of the Feng and the Huang is the emblem of everlasting love. Always rare, it is now centuries since the birds have appeared in China and men say that they are not to be expected for the time being. They will return only when the Middle Kingdom is at peace. The voice of the Feng-Huang is of great importance, for it has been considered in Chinese mythology as the inventor of music and dance. In Taoism, the bird is called the Scarlet Bird, associated with Fire and with the mystic number seven.

The Ho-o, a bird with a remarkable voice, is the Japanese counterpart of Feng-Huang, Japanese artists have often imagined the gracious lines of this relative of the Sun, this good-will messenger of love and peace. It came into Japan first as good luck, and the design representing it, is used for auspicious occasions. The popularity of the PHOENIX design is still the same today. The symmetry of the birds indicates they are of Chinese origin, and, in some cases, the male and female are slightly different. Toward the 11th and 12th centuries the Ho-o became completely Japanese, in other words "patternized as a gentle, graceful bird. Tradition says that the fabulous PHOENIX eats bamboo fruits and not worms and insects like real ordinary birds. That he lives in the Kiri (the Paulownia tree). He drinks at a "fountain of eternal youth" so in Japanese design both the Kiri leaves and the bamboo are used in relation to the PHOENIX BIRD. Fabrics with those designs were specially woven for emperors.

It is only later and because of the lasting influence of the Roman Emperors, that the eagle was mistaken for the PHOENIX BIRD, both having at one time or the other symbolized Immor-

GREAT SEAL OF THE U. S. FIRST SEAL (1782)

In an old sketch made as a design for the Great Seal by William Barton (1782), a Phoenix appears sitting upon nest of flames. Benjamin Franklin opposed the Eagle as symbol of progressive people being a Rosicrucian, it is possible he suggested the PHOENIX after his idea of "Moses dividing Red Sea" was rejected. Final

SEAL OF THE CITY AND COU S OF SAN FRANCIS

March 1, 1856 revised

Miner and sailor motto

"Gold in peace, iron in war"

Bird symbolizes also city's deliverance from Old Consolidation Act.

Vitality. The eagle flies so high that he has been recognized as the king of birds, and because of his disappearance in stormy clouds he was associated with the thunder and became the bird of Zeus (Jupiter for the Romans).

"In the early days," we read in Ark of Heraldry, "the Roman Legion carried several standards. But one of the consuls of the Republic, Caius Marius, considering the eagle qualities, decreed that the Roman soldier should carry only the Roman eagle in battle and in camp." Later, when converted to Christianity, Emperor Constantine replaced the spearhead with a cross, and the first Byzantine emperor used a double-headed eagle to indicate the power Over of East and West (Rome and Byzantium).

As a standard, the early Greeks carried at the end of a spear, a shield, a helmet, or a piece of purple cloth. The Phoenicians dyed it with the PHOENIX red. The symbol of Empires became Eagles. Our American eagle, of course, comes also from the Roman Legion, whose influence was felt so greatly. In the Middle Ages the PHOENIX was heraldically described as being "a half-eagle coming out of a nest of flame." In fact, the technical term for its pyre is Immortality.

PHOENIX was used on the shields of famous people. At the time of HENRY VIII, Jane, a Seymour, died giving birth to little Edward, who was to be King Edward VI. At that time her family was given a new crest, a PHOENIX, with a ducal coronet and the motto Nascatur ut alter, "that another may be born." Later his sister Elizabeth became queen, and remained virgin, saying she didn't want to marry, being wedded to her kingdom," and because the PHOENIX lived and died unmated, she chose the PHOENIX as her emblem with the motto Semper eadem, "always the same." The queen's cousin Mary, queen of Scotland, charged her own arms of Scotland with the royal arms of England and also took the PHOENIX BIRD with the motto En ma fin git mon commencement, "In my death rests my birth."

But actually it was another girl whose death was really her beginning. Lighted by 15th century politicians, her pyre burned Joan, the French peasant girl, to Sainthood. Much later, this event was commemorated in the Palais Royal in Paris, where a PHOENIX symbolized the 17-year-old Joan of Arc with the words INVITO FUNERE VIVET, "Her unwanted cremation will make her live."

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TATE OF HAW

Great Seal of HAWAII: accessories"The Bird PHOENIX wings outstretched, half yellow, half dark red; arising from flames, body black, having on either sidemaidenhair fern." (1959)

banana foliage and spray of

-"The PHOENIX Bird also repre-

sents the change from monar-

chial government to a freer form of government."

The motto was expression used by King Kamehameha III in a speech made 1843, translated "The life of the land is per-

"The life of the land is per-

petuated by righteousness."

HERALDIC PHOENIX

The Bird is seen in coat-of-arms: The armorial bearings of Sir Alfred Hick-man has a crest-"On a wreath of the color, a PHOENIX, issuing out of flames, transfixed through the mouth by a tilting

Spear, palewise proper, each wing

charged with two annulets erect and interlaced."

The former Right Reverend

Arthur B. Kinsolving, 2nd Bishop

of Arizona (Episcopal church)

coat-of-arms reads Dexter

base; argent (silver), a PHOENIX

displayed sable (black), lan-

gued gules (red tongue) rising

from the Crown of Spain;

flames gules (red) or all proper (natural color).

U. S. SECOND SEAL (1841)

A rearrangement of 6 years of effort was made by Charles Thompson, Secretary of Congress, who selected features from many sketches and chose colors. He adopted American bald eagle. Barton redesigned final 1782 seal.

Today's seal was designed in 1841, modified only in details later.

Great Seal of VIRGINIA: (Re-

verse) June 25, 1877

Liberty with a pileus (Roman le-

gionnaire spear) and a wand

Eternity with a globe and a

PHOENIX

Ceres with cornucopia and ear

of wheat.

ARTISTS INTERPRETATIONS

From the texts of the early writers to that of contemporaries, from the temples of the Mediterranean Sea to the fanciful designs of coats of arms, the PHOENIX BIRD, described in different ways, resurrected at different times but nevertheless, constantly, a self-burning bird has given a message to men.

Although there is no doubt that he was born in the imagina-tion of many a poet, he carries the sacredness of a flag as an abstract symbol overpowered with realities. Hopes of Immortality, of Resurrection, that have existed in the minds of so many people for so long; a legend surviving, many times disappearing, reappear-ing, fluctuating between black and white, night and day, as man vascillates between good and evil. The eternal PHOENIX of myth is more alive today than the Dodo, the Australian bird just extinct, or any prehistoric reptiles; and in fact, the Roman emperors them-selves and the Egyptian Pharaohs or priests who, in one way or another, admired him, worshipped him, and even ate him. Ideas are so often more powerful than facts.

In his belief that there is another world, man certainly is him-self a PHOENIX, triumphant, refusing to be cast down by the thought of an end. In fact, for the Believer, death should be, if taken unselfishly, a joyful event if one trusts a God with kindness.

Phillippe de Thaum wrote in his "Bestiary"-"Know this is its lot; it comes to death of its own will, and from death it comes to life; hear what it signifies. PHOENIX signifies Jesus, Son of Mary, that He had power to die of His own will, and from death come to life. PHOENIX signifies that to save His people He chose to suffer upon the Cross."

Other early Christians such as St. Cyril or St. Ambrose refer in their writings to the PHOENIX BIRD who teaches us, by its example, to believe in the Resurrection. It appears in Christian symbolism as early as the first century, often on funeral stones, the triumph of Eternal Life over death. Never the symbol of Reincarnation, but of the Self purified by Christianity; the constant renewal of spiritual values, of the flames of love, of the seasonal spring of life, in spite of the some-times desperate hours of Winter and its devastating drawbacks in our daily life. Each morning we wake up a new Phoenix.

SUNSET

The night was clear, luminous, transparent. Millions of stars were winking... street lights, neon lights, a light of life from each home. Vaguely in the east, a white light was searching, projecting from the Grand Opening of the Sombrero Theater. From bebind a palm tree a large "bird" crossed the firmament with a blinking signal of green and red lights. All the fragrances of Arizona plants rose like an incense-the essence of the desert in bloom, the scent of greasewood after rain, the citrus, the garden flowers . . . the new life brought by irrigation. Then, behind Camelback Mountain, the east had turned a lemon, full moon-bathing in her strong light the large capital of the Southwest. In the sharpness detailed by moonbeams all the houses, the ranch homes, farms, modern factories, markets, filling stations, the gardens of the poor and the rich, churches, avenues and trees became purple and gold plumage lined by the silvery glitter of the canals-PHOENIX the City, a rebirth of PHOENIX the Bird.

VERY ELEGANT AND CERTIFIED ORIGINAL MAP OF THE UNITED STATES IN AMERICA

The Places of Major Cities being shown, and the Importance of the States being Conveniently Indicated, and with Large Territories of Winged Gods being included for the Reader's Information and Pleasure.

FLAG OF THE CITY OF PHOENIX, ARIZONA . . .

To be ordained by the Commissioner of the City of Phoenix, as follows: That the following described flag be, and the same is hereby adopted as, the official flag of the City of Phoenix: PHOENIX BIRD, in gray, on gold sunburst background on a blue field. White ribbon scrolls along lower part of flag on which the following legend in gold "City of Phoenix, Arizona."

Passed by the Commission of the City of Phoenix this 23rd day of November, 1921.

Approved this 23rd day of November, 1921.

William H. Plunkett Mayor THE SEAL OF PHOENIX, ARIZONA used to be a "gold eagle on navy." Under the influence of John Lindley Higham, who since Duppa, has been the herald of the Phoenix, it was changed to the present design in 1953 a composite planned by Dorothy Bergamo and Ellen Langmade.