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“By definition, there can only be one phoenix at a time, in all the world. Usually pictured as being about as big as an eagle, with scarlet plumage, a purple tail, iridescent wings, and a plumed golden head, the phoenix is obviously a handsome bird, but its fame depends not so much on its beauty as on the strange cycle of death-and-resurrection it periodically undergoes. As Pliny puts it: "Hee liveth 660 yeares: and when hee groweth old, and begins to decay, he builds himselfe a nest ... and when he hath filled it with all sort of sweet aromaticall spices, yeeldeth up his life thereupon ... of his bones and marrow there breedeth at first as it were a little worme: which afterwards proveth to bee a pretie bird." By the early Middle Ages, the nest of fine woods and "aromaticall spices" has become a self-made funeral pyre upon which the phoenix is totally consumed by fire, only to rise again reborn from the ashes to live for another thousand years, a cycle that repeats endlessly forever. ...This image has proved so powerful and enduring that the phoenix has become a worldwide symbol of resurrection and rebirth, and the phrase "a phoenix from the ashes" is still part of popular parlance.MoreLess
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