The Legend and History of the Benu Bird
and Phoenix

The Egyptian Benu Bird was known to the Greeks as the phoenix. A legendary bird without parent and without offspring, it nurtured itself on sunlight and sea spray. Brilliant in appearance, its feathers were gold and red and blinding white as the sun; its eyes were green as the sea. A semi-immortal being, the phoenix had a life span of 500 years and when about to die, it drew new life from those primal elements of fire and water and was born again. It would build its nest in the form of a funeral pyre and a single clap of its wings would set it afire. Then, when consumed by the flames, a young phoenix would arise from its own ashes. The Greeks considered the appearance

It is possible that this legend comes from what Herodotus wrote of the Benu Bird:

"I have not seen a Phoenix myself, except in paintings, for it is a very rare and visits the country (so at least they say in Heliopolis) only at intervals of 500 years, on the occasion of the death of the parent bird. To judge by the paintings, its plumage is partly golden, partly red, and in shape and size it is exactly like an eagle. There is a story about the phoenix: it brings its parent in a lump of myrrh all the way from Arabia and buries the body in the Temple of the Sun. To perform this feat, the bird first shapes some myrrh into a sort of egg as big as it finds, by testing, that it can carry; then it hollows the lump out, puts its father inside and smears some more myrrh over the hole. The egg-shaped lump is then just of the same weight as it was originally. Finally, it is carried by the bird to the Temple of the Sun in Egypt. I pass on the story as it was told to me - but I don't believe it."

In Pliny's account, a small worm appeared from the body of the phoenix that metamorphosed into a bird, and thus the phoenix was reborn.
 
 

Legend - Egyptian (Creation Myth of Heliopolis)

One of the creation myths of Heliopolis tells of the Benu Bird. It gives an account of the first dawn and a heron skimming over the waters of the Nun until it came to rest on a rock. As it did so, it opened its beak and a cry echoed over the unutterable silence of the Nun. The world was filled with "that which it had not known"; the cry of the Benu Bird "determined what is and is not to be." Thus, the Benu Bird, as an aspect of Atum, brought light and life to the world. The Benu was said to have created itself from fire which burned at the top of the sacred persea tree of Heliopolis and it rested on the Benben stone, a pillar topped by a pyramid-shaped stone (obelisk), which became the most sacred fetish worshipped in the city. On the Metternich Stele,

Isis says to her son, Horus: "Thou are the Great Benu who was born on the Incense Trees in the House of the Great Prince in Heliopolis." The capstones of the pyramids and the pyramids themselves, was thought to be a representation of the Benben-stone and the kings buried underneath them were under the direct protection of the Sun God. The Benu Bird's cry had begun the cycle of time which the Egyptians to believed to be divinely appointed. Divided as such: the twenty four hour day with twelve hours for both daytime and night-time, the ten days that comprised the Egyptian week, the thirty day month, the year of twelve months (365 days) and the periods of 1,460 years in which the civil and astronomical calendars diverged and then coincided again. The temple of the Benu Bird at Heliopolis was primarily concerned with the regulations of the calendar and the Benu Bird itself became the deity connected with the division of time. In other accounts, the Benu is said to have sprung from the heart of Osiris as a living symbol of the god.
 
 

Description

There are many descriptions of the phoenix/benu bird ranging from various colors to various types of birds. It has ranged from a heron to an eagle-like bird, a yellow wagtail, and a golden hawk with a heron's head. The coloring of its plumage is also varied. Usually part red and part gold it has also been said to be royal purple with a golden head and neck or a plum-colored body with scarlet back and wing feathers, a golden head and a sweeping tail of rose and azure. The size of the bird is the only thing that seems to be consistent, but also somewhat ambiguous, as large can mean many sizes. The phoenix is thought to have originated in either Egypt or Arabia and by one account, spends most of its life in Phoenicia.

History

The Egyptian Benu Bird, which was usually depicted as a heron, could have come from a new species of heron found in recent excavations at Umm an-Nar. When the bones of the bird were reconstructed, it was found to be a large heron, larger than any now living. The Egyptians may have seen this large bird only as an extremely rare visitor or possibly heard tales of it from travelers who had trading expeditions to the Arabian Seas. Another possibility is the Goliath heron, now found, among other places, on the coast of the Red Sea, but which may have been more widespread in ancient times.

Transform into a Phoenix

            (Book of the Dead)

I have flown up like the primeval ones, I have become Khepri, I have grown as a plant, I have clad myself as a tortoise, I am the essence of every god, I am the seventh of those seven uraei who came into being in the West, Horus who makes brightness with his person, that god who was against Seth, Thoth who was among you in that judgement of Him who presides over Letopolis together with the Souls of Heliopolis, the flood which was between them. I have come on the day when I appear in glory with the strides of the gods, for I am Khons who subdued the lords. As for him who knows this pure spell, it means going out into the day after death and being transformed at will, being in the suite of Wennefer, being content with the food of Osiris, having invocation-offerings, seeing the sun; it means being hale on earth with Re and being vindicated with Osiris, and nothing evil shall have power over him. A matter a million times true.

Sources:
Book of the Dead - R.O. Faulkner
Gods of Ancient Egypt - Barbara Watterson
Gods, Demigods and Demons - Bernard Evslin
Encyclopedia of Gods - Michael Jordon