"I
shall multiply my days as the hol, the phoenix"
(Job 29:18)
The school of R. Yannai maintained: The hol lives a thousand
years, at the end of which a fire issues from its nest and burns
it up, leaving only as much as any egg's mulk, and from that
it grows new limbs and lives again. R. Yudan bar R. Simeon said:
[It lives a thousand years] at the end of which its body is
consumed and its wings drop off, yet, from the egg-sized bulk
left, it grows new limbs and lives again.[*] |
Leviathan,
ziz, and behemot are not the only monsters; there are many others,
and marvelous ones.
Among the birds the phoenix is the most wonderful. When Eve gave
all the animals some of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, the
phoenix was the only bird that refused to eat thereof, and he was
rewarded with eternal life. When he has lived a thousand years,
his body shrinks, and the feathers drop from it, until he is as
small as an egg. This is the nucleus of the new bird.
The phoenix
is also called "the guardian of the terrestrial sphere."
He runs with the sun on his circuit, and he spreads out his wings
and catches up the fiery rays of the sun. If he were nor there to
intercept them, neither man nor any other animate being would keep
alive. On his right wing the following words are inscribed in huge
letters, about four thousand stadia high; "Neither the earth
produces me, nor the heavens, but only the wings of fire."
His food consists of the manna of heaven and the dew of the earth.
His excrement is a worm, whose excrement in turn is the cinnamon
used by kings and princes.
Enoch, who saw
the phoenix birds when he was translated, describes them as flying
creatures, wonderful and strange in appearance, with the feet and
tails of lions, and the heads of crocodiles; their appearance is
of a purple color like the rainbow; their size nine hundred measures.
Their wings are like those of angels, each having twelve, and they
attend the chariot of the sun and go with him, bringing heat and
dew as they are ordered by God. In the morning when the sun starts
on his daily course, the phoenixes and the chalkidri sing, and every
bird flags its wings, rejoicing the Giver of light, and they sing
a song at the command of the Lord.
See also:
Fantastic creatures in
ancient biblical legend, introduction by Shalom Spiegel
Leviathan, king
of the fishes
Behemot, king of
the mammals
Ziz, king of the birds
The salamander
and the shamir, most marvelous of reptiles
|
[*]
Gen. R. 19:5; Midrash Sam. 12 [back]
|
