PHE'NIX, the name of a mythical Egyptian bird, supposed by some to be a kind of plover, like the kibitz, often depicted with human arms, and called in hieroglyphs reklis Others consider to tys the benau, or nycticorax, a bird sacred to Osiris, and represented watching the tamarisks over his coffin. The first of these reprtsentations has sometimes a star upon the head, supposed to indicate the astronomical period of its appearance. It visited Egypt after the (loath of its father, and entered the shrine particularly dedi cated to it at Heliopolis, and there buried its parent, putting the body into an egg or case made of myrrh, and then closing up the egg. Another account is, that the phenix when about to die, made a nest for itself in Arabia, from which a new phenix sprung of itself. This bird proceeded to Heliopolis, and there burned and buried its father. But the more pepularly known version is, that the phenix burned itself, and a new and young phenix sprung from the ashes. A less received version is, that a worm crawled out of the -body of time dead phenix, and beenine the future one. The phenix was, acoording to the most authenic accouuts, supposed to visit Egypt every 500 years; the precise period, however, was not known at Heliopolis, and was a subject of contention till its appearance. The connection of the phenix period with that of the Sothiac cycle,
appears to be generally received by chronologists, as well as the statement of Herrepollo, that it designated the soil and the inundation of the Nile. A great difference of opinion has prevailed about the Phenix period: according to YElian, it was a cycle of 500 years; Tactitus seems to make it one of 250 years; Lepsms a cycle of 1,500 years. The phenix was fabled to have four times appeared in Egypt: 1, under Scsostris; 2, under Amasis, 569-525 B.C.; 3, under Ptolemy Philadelphus, 284-246 B.C.; and lastly, 34 or 36 A.D., just prior to the death of Tiberius. The phenix also appears upon the coins of Con stantine, 334 A.D. viz., :300 years after the death of Christ, who was considered the phenix by the monastic writers. It is supposed by the rabbins to be mentioned in Job and the Psalms.—Job. xxxix. 18; Psalms viii. 5; Ilerodotus, ii. 73; Achilles Thins, lb. 25; Tacitus. An. vi. 28; Tsclzcs, Chi!. v, 397; Lepsius, p. 1S3; Archaologia, vol xxx. p. 256.