Search Results for “bennu”

Source: Bennu

Bennu () is an ancient Egyptian deity linked with the Sun, creation, and rebirth. He may have been the original inspiration for the phoenix legends that developed in Greek mythology.

Roles

Bennu

Depiction

Bennu

New Kingdom artwork shows Bennu as a huge grey heron with a long beak and a two-feathered crest. Sometimes Bennu is depicted as perched on a benben stone (representing Ra and the name of the top stone of a pyramid) or in a willow tree (representing Osiris). Because of the connection with Osiris, Bennu sometimes wears the Atef crown, instead of the solar disk.

Possible animal model

Remains of a giant, human-sized heron species, thought to have gone extinct around 1500 BC, were discovered in the United Arab Emirates in 1977. It lived on the Arabian Peninsula and shared many characteristics with Bennu, and scientists believe it may have been the animal model for the deity. In reference to this, archaeologist Dr. Ella Hoch from the Geological Museum at Copenhagen University named it the Bennu heron (Ardea bennuides).

Worship

Like Atum and Ra, Bennu was probably worshipped in the deities' cult centre at Heliopolis. Bennu also appears on funerary scarab amulets as a symbol of rebirth.

Connection with the Greek phoenix

The Greek historian Herodotus, writing about Egyptian customs and traditions in the fifth century BC, wrote that the people at Heliopolis described the "phoenix" to him. They said it lived for 500 years before dying, resuscitating, building a funerary egg with myrrh for the paternal corpse, and carrying it to the temple of the Sun at Heliopolis. His description of the phoenix likens it to an eagle with red and gold plumage, reminiscent of the sun.
Long after Herodotus, the theme of the fire, pyre, and ashes of the dying bird, ultimately associated with the Greek phoenix, developed in Greek traditions.
The name "phoenix" could be derived from "Bennu", and its rebirth and connections with the sun resemble the beliefs about Bennu; however, Egyptian sources do not mention a death of the deity.

References

Labrique, Françoise (2013). "Le regard d'Hérodote sur le phénix (II, 73)". In Coulon, Laurent; Giovannelli-Jouanna, Pascale; Kimmel-Clauzet, Flore (eds.). Regards croisés sur le Livre II de l'Enquête d'Hérodote. Actes de la journée d'étude organisée à la Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée – Lyon, le 10 mai 2010 (in French). Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée. ISBN 978-2-35668-037-2.
Lecocq, Françoise (2016). "Inventing the Phoenix: A Myth in the making Through Words and Images". In Johnston, Patricia A.; Mastrocinque, Attilio; Papaioannou, Sophia (eds.). Animals in Greek and Roman Religion and Myth. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 449–478.
Lecocq, Françoise (2019). "L'oiseau bénou-phénix et son tertre sur la tunique historiée de Saqqâra. Une interprétation nouvelle". ENiM (Égypte nilotique et méditerranéenne) (in French). 12: 247–280.
Van Den Broek, Roelof (1971). The Myth of the Phoenix According to Classical and Early Christian Traditions. Translated by Seeger, I. Brill.
Wolterman, Carles (1991–1992). "On the Names of Birds and Hieroglyphic Sign-List G 22, G 35 and H 3". Jaarbericht van het Vooraziatisch-Egyptisch Genootschap Ex Oriente Lux. 32.