It is associated with the Sun god Phoebus. In Greek and Roman legends, the Phoenix is the symbol of immortality and resurrection. It is also said that a new Phoenix rose immediately from the ashes and flew with it's predecessor's embalmed remains to Heliopolis, accompanied by a flight of turtledoves. According to Pliny, from the ashes emerged a small worm that the sun's rays turned into a new Bennu at the end of the day. It then climbed onto it and waited for the sun's rays to consume it, singing a song of rare beauty as it did so. After 500 years, according to Herodotus, Bennu flew to the Sun temple in Heliopolis to build its funeral pyre with incense twigs. Bennu is, one way or the other, the personification of creation and life-force. The mound was called the ben-ben, and was the origin of the town of Heliopolis. Another story says that the heron Bennu was the first life form to have appeared on the mound which rose from the watery chaos of the first creation, which links Bennu to the Nile and its periodical floods. It is said that Bennu had created itself from the fire that burned on the top of the sacred Persea tree in Heliopolis. It also symbolizes a new period of wealth and fertility, when the Nile flooded the earth each year. Bennu was associated with the Sun God Ra and with Osiris, God of the Underworld, who is said to have given the secret of eternal life to Bennu.īennu symbolises rebirth, as it rises from its ashes like a new sun rises when the old has died. Its true home was however the Arabian desert it only came back to Heliopolis to die and be reborn. ![]() It was the sacred bird of Heliopolis, city of the Sun, where it stayed on the ben-ben stone or obelisk, inside the town's sanctuary. Bennu is mostly depicted as a heron, with a long straight back, a head adorned with two erect feathers, and its plumage red and golden. ![]() The Egyptians were the first to speak of Bennu, which later became the Phoenix in Greek legends. The Egyptians call it Bennu, the Greeks Phoenix, the Chinese Fèng Huáng, and the Japanese Hō-ō. In Egyptian mythology, it is a legendary bird said to live in Arabia. The Phoenix can be found in many different cultures.
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