THE RESURRECTION BIRD
Posted: 02.04.23 in Articles category
One of my favourite books as a child was the Edwardian novel, 'The Phoenix and the Carpet', by Edith Nesbit. It is a story about a family of children and their adventures on a magic carpet, but the star of the tale is a strange, golden, talking bird - a phoenix. She hatches from a mysterious egg found wrapped inside the carpet and which one of the children accidently drops into a fire. The phoenix explains to the astonished children how this carpet can transport them anywhere they wish, and she joins them on various exotic journeys, on occasion rescuing them from tricky situations as well as creating problems herself like setting a theatre on fire. At the end of the story the phoenix sets herself alight on a pyre specially built by the children, but not before she lays a special egg for the carpet to take away. That egg won't hatch for another two thousand years, and when it does the phoenix will once again emerge and begin her life cycle.
Nesbit's tale is loosely based on the legend of the phoenix. It is an ancient legend that predates the Christian era, going back at least two thousand five hundred years to the writings of the Greek historian Herodotus, but the motif of a bird rising from the ashes of death had obvious resonance for early generations of Christians. The Letter of 1 Clement, attributed to the third pope and written to the Corinthians at the end of the first century, contains the following words as chapter 25 and verse 1 of chapter 26:
"Let us consider the incredible sign that occurs in the eastern climes, that is, in the regions near Arabia. For there is a bird called the Phoenix. this unique creature lives five hundred years. And when at last it approaches its dissolution through death, it makes a tomb for itself out of frankincense, myrrh and other spices. Then, when the time has been fulfilled, it enters into the tomb and dies. But when its flesh rots, a worm is born. And nourished by the secretions of the dead creature, it sprouts wings. Then when it becomes strong, it takes the tomb containing the bones of its predecessor and bears these from Arabia to Egypt, to the city called Heliopolis. In the daytime, while all are watching, it flies onto the altar of the sun and deposits these things, and so hastens back. Then the priests examine the records of the times and discover that it has come after five hundred years have elapsed. Do we then think that it is so great and marvellous that the Creator of all things will raise everyone who has served him in a holy way with the confidence of good faith, when he has shown us the magnificence of his promise even through a bird?"
Judging from this letter, Clement believed in the phoenix's existence and argued that its cycle of life, death, and re-birth, was an unusual sign from the natural world supporting the Christian belief in the resurrection of the dead. Various bestiaries produced across Europe in medieval times typically featured the phoenix, rising from the ashes of a fire, and told its story as an allegory of the death and resurrection of Christ. The twelfth century Aberdeen Bestiary also added that the tale of the phoenix signified the "resurrection of the righteous who, gathering the aromatic plants of virtue, prepare for the renewal of their former energy after death.... Faith in the resurrection to come is no more of a miracle than the resurrection of the phoenix from its ashes."
Even in modern times the idea of rising ‘phoenix-like' from the ashes continues to be a powerful notion. San Francisco's flag features a phoenix to symbolise the city's rebuilding after the 1906 earthquake and Coventry City FC features one on its club crest, making the link between the football team and a city so badly bombed in the Second World War. Yet the mythical bird is not a symbol that comes to mind in contemporary Christian folklore. Mention the word 'phoenix' today and many people might think of Harry Potter and Professor Dumbledore's pet bird at Hogwarts school. As a parent of a Potter fan, I read the books and watched all the films, but I don't recall seeing that phoenix, whereas I instantly flash back and see in my mind's eye a wonderful Snowy Owl.