Editing Phoenix (mythology) (section)

==Diffusion in later culture==
{{See also|The Phoenix (Old English poem)}}
In time, the motif and concept of the phoenix extended from its origins in ancient Greek folklore. For example, the classical motif of the phoenix continues into the [[Gnosticism|Gnostic]] manuscript ''[[On the Origin of the World]]'' from the [[Nag Hammadi Library]] collection in Egypt, generally dated to the 4th century:<ref>{{cite book|author=James M. Robinson|author-link=James M. Robinson|title=The Nag Hammadi Library |date=1988 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/TheNagHammadiLibraryPartial/page/n291 291–292]}} [[HarperCollins Publishers]].</ref>

{{blockquote|Thus when [[Eve#Gnosticism|Sophia Zoe]] saw that the rulers of darkness had laid a curse upon her counterparts, she was indignant. And coming out of the first heaven with full power, she chased those rulers out of their heavens and cast them into the sinful world, so that there they should dwell, in the form of evil spirits upon the earth.<br/>
[...], so that in their world it might pass the thousand years in paradise—a soul-endowed living creature called "phoenix". It kills itself and brings itself back to life as a witness to the judgement against them, for they did wrong to [[Adam]] and his race, unto the consummation of the age. There are&nbsp;[...] three men, and also his posterities, unto the consummation of the world: the spirit-endowed of eternity, and the soul-endowed, and the earthly. Likewise, there are three phoenixes in paradise—the first is immortal, the second lives 1,000 years; as for the third, it is written in the sacred book that it is consumed. So, too, there are three baptisms—the first is spiritual, the second is by fire, the third is by water. Just as the phoenix appears as a witness concerning the [[angel]]s, so the case of the water [[Hydrus (legendary creature)|hydri]] in Egypt, which has been a witness to those going down into the baptism of a true man. The two bulls in Egypt posses a mystery, the Sun and the Moon, being a witness to [[Archon (Gnosticism)#Naming and associations|Sabaoth]]: namely, that over them [[Sophia (Gnosticism)|Sophia]] received the universe; from the day that she made the Sun and Moon, she put a seal upon her heaven, unto eternity. And the worm that has been born out of the phoenix is a human being as well. It is written concerning it, "the just man will blossom like a phoenix". And the phoenix first appears in a living state, and dies, and rises again, being a sign of what has become apparent at the consummation of the age.}}

[[File:Phoenix detail from Aberdeen Bestiary.jpg|thumb|right|Detail from the 12th-century ''[[Aberdeen Bestiary]]'', featuring a phoenix]]
[[File:Greek Phoenix.svg|thumb|In Greece, the phoenix rising from flames was the symbol of the [[First Hellenic Republic]] under [[Ioannis Kapodistrias]], the [[Political Committee of National Liberation|Mountain Government]] and the [[Greek military junta of 1967–1974|Regime of the Colonels]].]]
The anonymous 10th-century Old English ''[[Exeter Book]]'' contains a 677-line 9th-century alliterative poem consisting of a paraphrase and abbreviation of Lactantius, followed by an explication of the Phoenix as an [[allegory]] for the [[Resurrection of Jesus|resurrection]] of [[Jesus|Christ]].<ref>Blake 1964, p. 1.</ref>
{{Verse translation|lang=ang|
Þisses fugles gecynd &nbsp; fela gelices
bi þam gecornum &nbsp; Cristes þegnum;
beacnað in burgum &nbsp; hu hi beorhtne gefean
þurh fæder fultum &nbsp; on þas frecnan tid
healdaþ under heofonum &nbsp; ond him heanna blæd
in þam uplican &nbsp; eðle gestrynaþ.
|attr1=In the original Old English<ref>{{cite web|title=The Exeter Book (Exeter, Cathedral Chapter Library, MS 3501)|editor-last=Jebson|editor-first=Tony|url=http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/library/oe/texts/a3.4.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040605060320/http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/library/oe/texts/a3.4.html|website=The Labyrinth Library|publisher=[[Georgetown University]]|date=12 January 1995|archive-date=5 June 2004|access-date=23 May 2024}}</ref>|
This bird's nature &nbsp; is much like
to the chosen &nbsp; servants of Christ;
pointeth out to men &nbsp; how they bright joy
through the Father's aid &nbsp; in this perilous time
may under heaven possess, &nbsp; and exalted happiness
in the celestial &nbsp; country may gain.
|attr2=In Modern English translation (1842)<ref>{{cite web|title=Codex exoniensis. A collection of Anglo-Saxon poetry, from a manuscript in the library of the dean and chapter of Exeter|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924013337617/page/n244|last1=Thorpe|first1=Benjamin|last2=Corson|first2=Hiram|page=244|year=1842|access-date=9 December 2018}}</ref>
}}

In the 14th century, Italian poet [[Dante Alighieri]] refers to the phoenix in Canto XXIV of the ''[[Divine Comedy]]'s'' ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'':
{{Verse translation|lang=it|Così per li gran savi si confessa
che la fenice more e poi rinasce,
quando al cinquecentesimo anno appressa;

erba né biado in sua vita non pasce,
ma sol d'incenso lagrime e d'amomo,
e nardo e mirra son l'ultime fasce.|attr1=In the [[:s:it:Divina Commedia/Inferno/Canto XXIV|original Italian]]|Even thus by the great sages 'tis confessed
The phoenix dies, and then is born again,
When it approaches its five-hundredth year;

On herb or grain it feeds not in its life,
But only on tears of [[incense]] and [[amomum]],
And [[Spikenard|nard]] and [[myrrh]] are its last [[shroud|winding-sheet]].|attr2=In [[s:The Divine Comedy/Inferno/Canto XXIV|English translation]]
}}

In the 17th-century play ''[[Henry VIII (play)|Henry VIII]]'' by English playwrights [[William Shakespeare]] and [[John Fletcher (playwright)|John Fletcher]], [[Archbishop Cranmer]] says in [http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID=henry8&Act=5&Scene=5&Scope=scene Act V, Scene v] in reference to Elizabeth (who was to become [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth I]]):

{{poem quote|... Nor shall this peace sleep with her; but as when
The bird of wonder dies, the maiden phoenix,
Her ashes new create another heir
As great in admiration as herself;
So shall she leave her blessedness to one,
When heaven shall call her from this cloud of darkness,
Who from the sacred ashes of her honour
Shall star-like rise as great in fame as she was,
And so stand fix'd&nbsp;...|sign=|source=}}[[File:Time and Death.jpg|thumb|"Time and Death", 1898 illustration by [[E. J. Sullivan]] for ''Sartor Resartus'']]In the 19th-century novel ''[[Sartor Resartus]]'' by [[Thomas Carlyle]], Diogenes Teufelsdröckh uses the phoenix as a metaphor for the [[cyclical pattern]] of history, remarking upon the "burning of a World-Phoenix" and the "''[[Palingenesis|Palingenesia]], or Newbirth of Society''" from its ashes:
{{blockquote|When the Phoenix is fanning her funeral pyre, will there not be sparks flying! Alas, some millions of men, and among them such as a [[Napoleon]], have already been licked into that high-eddying Flame, and like moths consumed there. Still also have we to fear that incautious beards will get singed.<br/>
For the rest, in what year of grace such Phoenix-cremation will be completed, you need not ask. The law of Perseverance is among the deepest in man: by nature he hates change; seldom will he quit his old house till it has actually fallen about his ears. Thus have I seen Solemnities linger as Ceremonies, sacred Symbols as idle Pageants, to the extent of three hundred years and more after all life and sacredness had evaporated out of them. And then, finally, what time the Phoenix Death-Birth itself will require, depends on unseen contingencies.—Meanwhile, would Destiny offer Mankind, that after, say two centuries of convulsion and conflagration, more or less vivid, the fire-creation should be accomplished, and we to find ourselves again in a Living Society, and no longer fighting but working,—were it not perhaps prudent in Mankind to strike the bargain?<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sartor Resartus by Thomas Carlyle. |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1051/1051-h/1051-h.htm |access-date=2022-08-07 |website=www.gutenberg.org |archive-date=2022-07-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220709010229/https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1051/1051-h/1051-h.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>}}
Phoenixes are present and relatively common in European [[heraldry]], which developed during the [[High Middle Ages]]. They most often appear as [[Crest (heraldry)|crests]], and more rarely as [[Charge (heraldry)|charges]]. The heraldic phoenix is depicted as the head, chest and wings of an eagle rising from a fire; the entire creature is never depicted.<ref name="Davies">[[Arthur Fox-Davies]], ''A Complete Guide to Heraldry'', T.C. and E.C. Jack, London, 1909, 240, https://archive.org/details/completeguidetoh00foxduoft.</ref>