Phenix

PHENIX, or Phœnix, a most rare Bird, and the only one of its Species, of which many wonderful Things are related. ‘Tis said it lives several Ages, and then is renew’d again from its own Ashes. The Rabbins¹ teach, that all the Birds having comply’d with the first Woman, and eaten of the forbidden Fruit along with her, the Phenix only would not eat of it, from whence it obtain’d a kind of Immortality. For at the End of a thousand Years a Fire proceeds out of the Phenix’s Nest, and consumes it; but in such manner, that there remains, as it were, an Egg, from whence the Bird is again renewed and reproduced. Others say, that it being arrived to the Age of a thousand Years, it plucks off its own Feathers, and dies of mere Decay of Nature : But it soon is produced again from its own Body, and returns to Life.

Other Rabbins add,² that this Bird being in Noah’s Ark, and out of Respect to the Patriarch not daring to ask Meat of him as the other Birds, Noah said to it, I pray God thou may’st not die. To which it answer’d, I shall die in my Nest, and I Job xxix. 18.shall live as long as the Phenix. We shall examine this Passage hereafter ; it suffices here to observe, that the Rabbins explain it of the Phenix.

The Naturalists who have spoke of this Bird, say Things of it that are altogether Vide Plin. l. x. c. 2. & l. xiii. c. 4.incredible. ‘Tis a Bird, as they say, of the Bigness of an Eagle, whose Head is crested with a most beautiful Tuft, and the Feathers of its Neck are gilt, and those of its Tail purple, with Carnation Down. Its Eyes are sparkling like two Stars. We are assured, that there is but one at a time in the whole World. According to some, it lives five hundred Years, according to others a thousand. Cheremon in Tzetzes makes its Life seven hundred Years long ; Pliny but six hundred and sixty, or but five hundred and sixty, or five hundred and twenty-one ; for Copies vary. Solinus, five hundred and forty. Hesiod says the Phenix lives as long as nine Ravens, and the Raven as long as nine Men, or nine Generations of Men.

Tacit. Annal. l. 6. & l. 3. c. 9.Tacitus says, there are some that make it live for fourteen hundred and sixty Years, but it is generally thought its Age does not extend beyond five hundred ; so that this is a Point of much Uncertainty. ‘Twas related in his Time, that the first that had been seen in Egypt appear’d in the Time of Sesostris, the second under Amasis, and the third under Ptolemy Euergetes. Pliny says, that a Phenix was brought to Rome under the Reign of the Emperor Claudius, in the Year 800 from the Foundation of Rome ; that it was shewn in the Assembly of the Senate, and that this Event was recorded in the publick Acts ; but, says Pliny, no body doubted but this was false.

As to the Manner in which it ends its Life, Authors are no more agreed upon this Fact, than upon its Age. ‘Tis said, that when the Time of its Renovation approaches, it builds itself a funeral Pile of Branches of sweet-scented Trees, upon which it sits down and dies. From its Bones and Marrow there is first produced a Worm, which as it grows takes the Form of a Bird. When it is grown up, it takes up the Ashes of its Parent, and carries them into Armenia or into Arabia, and places them upon the Altar of the Sun. Herodot. l. 2. c. 73.Herodotus says, it carries the Body of its Parent embalm’d in a Mass of Myrrh, which it deposits in the Temple of the Sun at Heliopolis in Egypt. The Fathers³ have often alluded to the Phenix, by way of Comparison, in their Proofs of a Resurrection. Some speak with doubt concerning what we have now said of the Phenix, Origen. l. 4. contra Celf. ad Finem.and others again with full Assurance. There are Letters from the King of Ethiopia, acquainting the Pope, that the Phenix was produced in his Kingdom ; and ‘tis related, that Pope Clement VIII. sent Queen Elizabeth, as a great Rarity, a Feather said to belong to the Phenix. But the most discerning are persuaded, that whatever is related about the Phenix is entirely fabulous. See Bochart De Animalibus sacris, p. 2. l. 6. c. 5. and our Dissertation upon that Passage of Job, xxix. 18. Sicut palma multiplicabo dies, printed before our Commentary upon the Book of Job.

In two Places the Seventy Interpreters have used the Word Phenix, as the Name of a Bird we now speak of, if some Commentators may be believ’d. Others maintain on the contrary, that in both these Passages they meant the Palm-tree, which in Greek is call’d Phoinix. These are the two Passages; Psal. xcii. 12. a The Righteous shall flourish like the Palm-tree; and Job xxix. 18.⁴ I shall die in my Nest, and I shall multiply my Days as the Phenix. [as the Sand, in our Tertul. l. de Resurrect. c. 13. Epiphan. in Physiolog. Beda explicat.allegor. in Job. c. xxix. 18. p. 556.Translation]. Tertullian and Epiphanius explain the first Passage by the Phenix. Bede and several Rabbins understand this Passage of Job of the same Bird. But as to the first, we need but cast our Eyes upon the Hebrew, to be convinc’d that it means the Palm-tree. The Word Thamar is not equivocal, but is known to signify the Palm-tree in Hebrew, as well as Phoinix in the Greek. The Hebrew Word Chul or Chol, which the Seventy have render’d by Phenix, is a Word of greater Uncertainty. Several Rabbins think it stands for a Bird; but we know that Chol in Hebrew, and in the Oriental Tongues that have any relation thereto, signifies Sand. The Similitude taken from a Multitude of Days compared to the Sand, is very expressive and common in Scripture. The most skilful Interpreters, the Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, Montanus, Pagninus, Munster, Castalio, Junius, Mercerus, Vatablus, Codurcus, and a great many others understand it in this Sense. Even the Septuagint themselves insinuate it, by translating it, My Age shall grow old as the Succour of a Palm-tree. For what Sense would it be to say, the Succour of the Phenix?

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