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The phoenix is a symbol of rebirth, but also has a lifecycle defying biology. Truth really can be stranger than fiction.*

Any creature that sets itself on fire in order to guarantee its survival is bound to compel attention. The phoenix has been for centuries a very powerful human symbol of the desire for spiritual rebirth and has, inevitably, become a multi-faceted emblem. It embodied the purifying power of fire; the Chinese female principle, or yin; imperial grace and elegance; immortality and rebirth; purity and piety. Now extinct, its end, like its beginning, is shrouded in a smokescreen of mystery. But such was man's regard for this bird that even now, some 500 years after it is believed to have vanished, there is a roaring trade in purported phoenix relics.

Up in Smoke
Making its home in a beautiful wooded glade in central India, the phoenix presented a magnificent sight. Resembling a very large eagle, with red and golden feathers, rainbow-hued wings and scarlet feet, it lived for at least 500 years--in some incarnations, as long as 1000. Ancient zoologists believed that it subsisted on air and dew, for it was never seen to feed. Modern knowledge of bacteria and other microscopic life forms, however, suggests that the phoenix was probably a filter feeder, using some sophisticated form of extraction mechanism like a plankton-eating sea creature.

As the phoenix approached the end of its allotted span, it would begin the long migration west. Flying to the Arabian peninsula, it would gather leaves and branches of cinnamon, myrrh and many other spices, before travelling on to Phoenicia (modern Lebanon). Here it would construct a pyre out of the materials it had gathered, strike its beak against a piece of flint, set the pyre and itself ablaze, and become completely consumed by the flames. By the next day a tiny worm-like creature could be seen amongst the embers, growing quickly into a bird exactly like its parent. After three days, the new phoenix was said to gather up its predecessor's ashes and take them to Heliopolis in Egypt, location of the Sun-God's temple, before flying back east to India.

Clone Ranger
This apparently courageous act of self-immolation by the phoenix impressed human observers beyond measure. In reality the practice was probably not the altruism it seemed. Because there was only ever one phoenix, it must have reproduced by parthenogenesis (developing an egg without being fertilized), a phenomenon common among chickens. The resulting offspring was thus an identical clone of its mother, and the incineration was probably a mechanism to encourage an internally-produced egg to hatch. The phoenix's self-destruction was in fact only the means to a state of which people have dreamed for millenia: genetic immortality.

The song and scent of the phoenix were said to be so beautiful that all the birds of the Earth would follow it, and when its plumage caught the sun it would appear to flare and shimmer in the sky. In the Far East its appearance was an auspicious omen, heralding the birth of a great emperor, or the dawn of a new age.

Although its western name is Greek (meaning 'Phoenician'), the Chinese were probably the first to record the phoenix, calling it the feng huang. For them it was a symbol of the empress and the female principle, yin to the emperor's dragon yang. Classical scholars learned of the bird through the Egyptians, and Hesiod and Herodotus both wrote about it. Later, the Christians were impressed with many of its features, seeing an allegory for Christ's resurrection in the three days it took for the young phoenix to develop, and arguing that it was free of corruption and sin because it never ate flesh.

Spice Invaders
However high their regard for it, the medieval Europeans were to prove the phoenix's undoing. Their rapacious demand for spices led to the over-exploitation of the Arabian spice groves on which it depended. With a population of one, the species could neither adapt nor evolve. By the end of the 16th century, the phoenix's fragile lifecycle had been fatally interrupted, and one of nature's most extraordinary creations had been lost forever.

-Joel Levy

*That's assuming you believe this is true. wink -Nyx

i've adopted the phoenix as one of my personal symbols. one day, i will have one tattooed on my left shoulder blade. the idea of this magnificent creature is so filled with meaning for me.

for a fun fantasy read i heartily recommend The Phoenix And The Carpet by E. Nesbit.

like Narnia, it has a group of kids who in fact form most of a family, but instead of (or along with) dire adventure and derring-do, there are hilarious slapstick mishaps.

and when you're done with that you can read Five Children And IT.