Phoenix
Phoinix (φοῖνιξ) in Herodotus’s Greek
The sacred bird said to travel from Arabia to Egypt with its dead father enclosed in myrrh: a report Herodotus records but does not believe.
Quick answer
In Herodotus’s Histories, the phoenix is a sacred bird said to bring its dead father from Arabia to the Sun’s temple in Egypt. Herodotus knows its appearance only from pictures and rejects the burial story as unbelievable. This account contains no burning nest or rebirth from ashes.[1]
Quick facts
| Record type | Greek historical account of a reported sacred bird |
|---|---|
| Source marker | Herodotus, Histories 2.73 (fifth century BCE) |
| Name | φοῖνιξ, transliterated phoinix; Godley uses “phoenix” |
| Source realm | Arabia and Heliopolis in Egypt |
| Appearance in pictures | Eagle-like shape and size; partly golden, mostly red plumage in Godley’s rendering |
| Reported interval | Visits once in five hundred years, according to the people of Heliopolis |
| Reported act | Carries its father’s body in a hollowed, resealed egg of myrrh |
| Evidence limit | Herodotus has not seen the living bird; he explicitly doubts the story of its actions |
Appearance, interval, and actions are reported in chapter 73, not established observations.[1]
What Herodotus says
In his discussion of Egypt’s sacred animals, Herodotus introduces the phoenix and immediately limits his testimony: he has seen pictures, not the bird itself. The people of Heliopolis say that it visits at five-hundred-year intervals and comes when its father dies. His description of its colours and eagle-like outline is conditional on those pictures being accurate.[1]
The reported burial begins with the bird shaping an egg of myrrh as heavy as it can carry and testing the load. It then hollows the egg, inserts its father’s body, and seals the opening with more myrrh. The completed burden is said to weigh the same as before. It carries this from Arabia to the Sun’s temple in Egypt and buries its father there. Herodotus explicitly states that he does not believe this tale.[1]
Description and reported abilities
Godley renders the pictured plumage as partly golden but mostly red, and the bird’s size and shape as closest to an eagle’s. These comparisons do not establish a zoological species or exact measurements. The remarkable activity in this passage is the preparation and transport of the myrrh enclosure; fire immunity, healing powers, and resurrection are not assigned to the bird here.[1]
Phoinix is the transliterated Greek name; “phoenix” is Godley’s English spelling. Godley’s “Sun” translates the divine name in the Greek account. This passage does not supply an Egyptian-language name for the bird; an identification with a bird from an Egyptian religious text would require separate evidence.[1]
Source realm: Arabia and Heliopolis
The narrative names Arabia as the point of departure, Egypt as the destination, and the people of Heliopolis as the authorities for the visiting interval. These are the geographical terms of Herodotus’s report, not a mapped habitat or a modern national range.[1]
The archive groups this record under Folklore places because it preserves a reported tale tied to named places. Its textual provenance is Greek historical writing about Egypt, rather than an Egyptian primary religious text. No shared cosmology with other creatures is implied.
Books and references
- 1Herodotus, Histories (The Persian Wars), Volume I: Books 1–2
Written in the fifth century BCE. Greek text with English translation by A. D. Godley. Loeb Classical Library 117; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, 1920. Book 2, chapter 73. Public-domain translation; the online edition titles the work Herodotus: The Persian Wars.
Read Book 2, chapter 73 ↗ · Edition details ↗ - 2Aberdeen Bestiary, MS 24, folio 56r
Anonymous manuscript made in England around 1200, University of Aberdeen. Illustration reference only: the university’s commentary allows either the bird burning or rising from ashes as a reading of the image. This does not supplement Herodotus’s description.
Holding institution’s folio and commentary ↗ · Image source and public-domain status ↗
