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This magical, mythical bird has long been a part of legends and lore, dating back to the ancient civilizations. In today’s culture, the phoenix’s legend is still going strong, with a major city in the United States named after the resurrecting beast and popular books and movies, including the phenomenally successful “Harry Potter” series encompassing the bird into characters and plots. Since the story has come down to us through the oral tradition, there is no single version of it. It varies from teller to teller – each adding something of their own and changing tiny aspects of it. How the story originated in the first place is also widely debated. It’s impossible to put down a specific place or time to its origin. Over the centuries not only the story has changed, but also the origination of the story. Nonetheless, the main facts of the legend of the Phoenix remain intact, even though the myth has been adulterated. According to the legend, the Phoenix is a supernatural creature that has an incredibly long life span, stretching to at least a thousand years. It cannot fall sick or get injured at any point in its lifetime. However, some believe that it does get affected by disease or drought, which leads it to prematurely enter the next phase of its life. The phoenix continues to live for a hundred years, or could succumb to an injury or disease. At this juncture in its lifespan, it gathers twigs, braches and woods not to create a nest, but an ancient funeral pyre. This pyre was used in ancient cultures to dispose of the dead, and some cultures continue the practice even today. In some cultures, personal artifacts are also burned with the dead body and some require that the spouses burn themselves at the pyre of their mate. After the pyre has been built, the phoenix ignites and begins to burn. This part of the story has changed and some believe the bird does not need to gather items to create a pyre, but rather self ignites and the flames burn without any fuel. The alteration to the story is not the only one, as there is great debate what happens after the bird is burned. The traditional story goes that the phoenix ignites himself, burns to ash, and then rises again from the ashes to live another thousand years. This triumph over adversity has caused to bird to become the mascot or symbol of many groups and organizations. Once the bird is born from ashes, the cycle begins anew. Another version of the story is that before the fire consumes the bird, it lays an egg, which hatches a new phoenix. This phoenix will live to be a thousand years old before having an offspring in the same method, thus continuing the life cycle of the bird. There is no way of ascertaining which version of the story is true, but all of them express the same theme: the triumph over adversity. No one knows how this story began in the first place. Some believe that a story was created around a fire-colored bird that was captured long ago, while others say the phoenix was actually a raven that used to dance in the embers of a dying fire.
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Silvio Ibanez is the owner and operator of F phoenix, the web's premier resource for information about phoenix, For questions or comments about this article visit: www.findnphoenix.com/articles Click here to get your own unique version of this article from the Unique Articles Submissions Service
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