Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. The Minotaur is a mystical creature in the Greek Mythology. The Egyptians associated the phoenix with immortality, and that symbolism had a widespread appeal in late antiquity. A phoenix (/ ˈ f iː n ɪ k s /; Ancient Greek: φοῖνιξ, phoînix) is a mythological bird that cyclically regenerates or is otherwise born again.Associated with fire and the sun, a phoenix obtains new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor. Ideas taking the phoenix into consideration presented themselves in the Gnostic manuscript On the Origin of the World from the Nag Hammadi Library collection: Thus when Sophia Zoe saw that the rulers of darkness had laid a curse upon her counterparts, she was indignant. Who, for the sake of a new beginning [19], Herodotus, Pliny, Solinus, and Philostratus describe the phoenix as similar in size to an eagle,[20] but Lactantius and Ezekiel the Dramatist both claim that the phoenix was larger, with Lactantius declaring that it was even larger than an ostrich.[21]. Get kids back-to-school ready with Expedition: Learn! Only one phoenix existed at any time, and it was very long-lived—no ancient authority gave it a life span of less than 500 years. The word Phoenician appears to be from the same root, meaning 'those who work with red dyes'. As its end approached, the phoenix fashioned a nest of aromatic boughs and spices, set it on fire, and was consumed in the flames. ma sol d'incenso lagrime e d'amomo, In the play Henry VIII by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, Archbishop Cranmer says in Act V, Scene v in reference to Elizabeth (who was to become Queen Elizabeth I): ...Nor shall this peace sleep with her; but as when Shall star-like rise as great in fame as she was, [16] Some said that the bird had peacock-like coloring, and Herodotus's claim of the Phoenix being red and yellow is popular in many versions of the story on record. 50 Mouthwatering and Wonderful Wedding Cakes, Falling Off a Cruise Ship: More Common Than You May Think. This bird's nature   is much like They can be found within the 'pages of the book' you're reading, or the 'frames of the film' you're watching. [8] In the 19th century, scholastic suspicions appeared to be confirmed by the discovery that Egyptians in Heliopolis had venerated the bennu. But the mythical creatures predate “Lord of the Rings” by a few centuries. No creature symbolizes eternal life more than the phoenix, a mythical bird known as much for its beauty as its immortality. [12] Pliny the Elder[13] also describes the bird as having a crest of feathers on its head,[14][11] and Ezekiel the Dramatist compared it to a rooster. Traditionally, these creatures had the body of a white horse, antelope hooves, a great spiral horn on their heads (also known as an alicorn), and sported a billy goat beard.