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The phoenix rising from the flames and ashes has become a universal symbol for rebirth, resurrection, and the power to rise up with renewed strength. This original design of a hand-feathered white dove dusted with pastels rising up on a lipstick mechanism out of pastel-coloured flames on a three-hinged Rhea Egg was created as a tribute to 9/11. It symbolizes hope and peace rising up out of the ashes of tragedy. As a historical note: The first known story of the phoenix comes from ancient Greek literature, in Herodotus' account of Egypt in The Persian Wars.( c. 430 BC). "They have also another sacred bird called the phoenix which I myself have never seen, except in pictures. Indeed it is a great rarity, even in Egypt, only coming there (according to the accounts of the people of Heliopolis) once in five hundred years, when the old phoenix dies." In the legend, when the time of death draws near, the phoenix gathers a funeral pyre of myrrh and other sweet branches. He sits on the pyre at dawn and sings the most beautiful song imaginable. As the suns rays hit the pyre, it bursts into flame and the Phoenix is consumed. From the ashes of the pyre comes the new Phoenix. It's first act is to gather together the ashes in a ball of myrrh and take it to the sacred alter of the Sun-God, Ra. The cycle repeats every 500 years.
Eggers Encyclopedia: Lee Boyle Lee's
Legacy
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Phoenix
Rhea Egg