First a bird of the Sun god from Arabia, the land of aromatic plants, the phoenix becomes an inhabitant of imaginary, utopian or Far East countries: the Elysian Fields, Panchaia, India... Adopted by the Christians as an example and a proof for the resurrection of the flesh, it becomes not only a dogmatic matter, but also a poetic and iconographic topic, with a new abode, from earth to heaven. Lactantius places it in a locus felix looking like the landscape of the pagan Golden Age and like the Paradise, with fresh water, evergreen trees and wonderful perfumes; Avitus and some versions of the Physiologus put it in the Garden of Eden during the Genesis, as do some Jewish rabbis, inventing new legends about the bird. Mosaics in churches, from Italy to Syria, show the phoenix on the homonymous palm tree in the eschatological paradise or the Heavenly Jerusalem. - [Abstract]

Language: English

DOI: 10.1515/9783110603064-006