A constellation representing the mythical
bird that supposedly was reborn from its own ashes. The
constellation was invented at the end of the 16th century by
the Dutch navigators Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de
Houtman.
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Phoenix, the multi-coloured bird that ended its life on a funeral pyre, seen in the Uranographia of Johann Bode.
The phoenix supposedly resembled a large
eagle with scarlet, blue, purple, and gold plumage. Ovid in his
Metamorphoses tells us that the phoenix lived for 500 years, eating
the gum of incense and the sap of balsam. At the end of its
allotted span the bird built itself a nest from cinnamon bark
and incense among the topmost branches of a palm tree, ending
its life on the fragrantly scented nest. A baby phoenix was
born from its father’s body. The nest was both the tomb
of one phoenix and the cradle of the next. When it was old
enough to bear the weight, the young phoenix lifted the nest
from the tree and carried it to the temple of Hyperion, the
Titan who was the father of the Sun god. The death and rebirth
of the phoenix has been seen as symbolizing the daily rising
and setting of the Sun.
© Ian Ridpath. All rights reserved
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