Phoenix
The phoenix is a mythical bird said to live for centuries, die by fire, and be reborn from its own remains - but despite its enormous later fame, it is a marginal, late-arriving figure in the actual Greek and Roman mythological tradition rather than a fixture of early epic.
Sections on this page
In Practice
It does not appear in Homer, Hesiod, or any of the major hero myths; the earliest and most detailed ancient accounts come from historical and philosophical writers describing it as a foreign curiosity rather than from poets weaving it into the Olympian or heroic story cycles. The earliest substantial ancient account is Herodotus's, who reports a story he was told at Heliopolis in Egypt: a bird called the phoenix, resembling an eagle with red and gold plumage, appears there only once every five hundred years, carrying its dead parent's body sealed in an egg of myrrh to the temple of the sun. Herodotus states plainly that he does not believe the story himself, presenting it explicitly as something the priests of Heliopolis told him rather than as fact he can vouch for. The fullest account mapped in this site's source library is Roman rather than Greek. Ovid's Metamorphoses, in the philosopher Pythagoras's speech on transformation and the permanence of matter beneath changing forms, describes a bird sacred to the sun that lives five hundred years, builds itself a nest of aromatic bark and spices, dies there, and is reborn from its own body to carry that nest onward to the city of the Sun. Later Roman writers, including Pliny the Elder, repeat and elaborate the same basic story in the centuries that follow. The mythical bird should not be confused with Phoenix, an elderly companion of Achilles who appears as a major character in Homer's Iliad, delivering one of the speeches during the embassy sent to win Achilles back into the fighting - a human figure who shares the name by coincidence rather than by any connection to the self-renewing bird described by Herodotus and Ovid centuries later.
What is the phoenix in Greek and Roman mythology?
The phoenix is a mythical bird said to live for hundreds of years before dying and being reborn from its own remains, most fully described in Ovid's Metamorphoses as a bird sacred to the sun that builds a nest of spices, dies in or near it, and rises again to carry the nest to a temple of the sun.
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 15
Does the phoenix appear in Homer or Hesiod?
Not as the mythical bird. Homer's Iliad does include a character named Phoenix, the elderly tutor and companion of Achilles who delivers one of the embassy's speeches in Book 9, but he is an ordinary mortal man who shares the name by coincidence, not the self-renewing bird of later legend.
Homer, Iliad, Book 9
What is the earliest surviving ancient account of the phoenix bird?
Herodotus's Histories gives the earliest substantial account, reporting a story told to him at Heliopolis in Egypt about a bird that returns once every five hundred years carrying its dead parent's remains sealed in an egg of myrrh. Herodotus says openly that he does not believe the story.
Herodotus, Histories 2.73
How does Ovid describe the phoenix's death and rebirth?
In the philosopher Pythagoras's speech in the Metamorphoses, the phoenix builds itself a nest from aromatic bark, twigs, and spices, dies within or near it after five hundred years of life, and a new phoenix is born from its body, strong enough to carry the old nest to the city of the Sun.
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 15
Is the phoenix an Egyptian or a Greek myth?
The ancient sources present it as Egyptian in origin: Herodotus explicitly locates the story at Heliopolis, a center of Egyptian sun worship, and describes it as something Egyptian priests told him rather than a native Greek tale. Greek and Roman writers adopted and elaborated the story afterward.
Why is the phoenix associated with the sun?
Both Herodotus's account and Ovid's tie the bird to sun worship: Herodotus sets its story at Heliopolis, an Egyptian city built around solar religion, and Ovid calls it a bird sacred to the sun that carries its old nest to the sun god's own city after its rebirth.
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 15
Is the mythical phoenix bird the same figure as Phoenix in the Iliad?
No. They share only a name. The Phoenix of Homer's Iliad is a mortal man, an aged friend and advisor of Achilles who joins the embassy sent to persuade him back into battle in Book 9. The self-renewing bird is a wholly separate figure, first substantially described centuries later by Herodotus.
Homer, Iliad, Book 9
Where This Appears
Sources
- Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 15
- Homer, Iliad, Book 9
- Herodotus, Histories 2.73