The Phoenix is a bird
of Greek and Egyptian mythology.
According to Greek mythology, the phoenix is
considered the symbol of the sun. Every morning, Apollo, the sun god, would stop
his chariot to listen to the phoenix singing as it bathed itself.
According to Egyptian legend, there is only one phoenix at a time.
It lives for
five hundred years. When it is near its death, it builds a pyre and sprinkles
aromatic herbs over it, and then consumes itself in flames. Out of the ashes of
this fire a new phoenix rises. This phoenix puts the ashes in an egg and carries
it to Heliopolis, the city of the sun in Egypt. Here it leaves the egg on the
altar of the sun god, Re. Because of its life cycle, the phoenix is a symbol of
rebirth.