306 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



its ashes issued a worm which changed itself into a 

 Phoenix ; and the early fathers of the Greek and 

 Latin Church availed themselves of this accredited 

 fable as a proof of the resurrection. * But though 

 the story of its rising from its ashes may have been 

 a late invention, the Phoenix itself was of very 

 ancient date, being found on monuments erected 

 about the commencement of the 18th Dynasty. 

 And we even find mention of this long-lived bird 

 in the book of Job.t This, at least, is the opinion 

 of Bede, who, in accordance with the Septuagint 

 translation of the word we render " sand" reads 

 *' I shall die in my nest, and shall multiply my days 

 as the Plimnix :" and Dr. Prichard, Gesenius, and 

 others, adopt the same interpretation of the passage. 

 Several ancient writers mention the periodical 

 return of the Phoenix : some agreeing with He- 

 rodotus in fixing it at about 800 years ; while 

 others state it to have been 660, 600, 500, 340, or 

 1460. "Various," says Tacitust, "are the opinions 

 respecting the number of years. They most com- 

 monly allow 500, though some extend the interval 

 to 1461, and assert that the bird appeared in the 

 age of Sesostris, of Amasis, and tlie third Ptolemy." 

 But these two periods do not agree : that from 

 Sesostris (or Remeses the Greatj to Amasis being 



* Ambrosius says : " Phoenix avis in Arabiae locis perhibetur .... 

 doceat igitiir nos haec avis exemplo sui resurrectionem credere." Hex- 

 aemer. lib. v. c. 23. It is also celebrated by Lactantius, Gregory Na- 

 zianzenus, and Tertullian. 



t Job. xxix. 18. The Hebrew name is 7Tn Hoi or AV^o/, which also 

 means " sand," as in our version. The Septuagint has ^oivd. 



X Tacit. Annal. vi. 28. Sen. Ep. 42. 



