The Riddle of Hesiod

We attempted earlier with Herodotus, who quoted Hesiod, to “trap” the elusive Phoenix. This ancient bird is an important symbol for our researches, because we learn from the poet Wolfram that the grail gives the phoenix the power to be reborn from the ashes. There is a famous riddle from antiquity, attributed to Hesiod, that deserves our attention because it could show that our 854-year cycles are supported by other sources.

Plutarch (ca. 46-120 CE) was an expert on Pagan religions at the time when Matthew's Gospel was compiled. He was an important Greek biographer, a priest of the Pythian Apollo, and according to his own testimonial (Treatise 10) initiated in the secret mysteries of Dionysus. He laments in his dialogue "de defectu oraculorum" (Moralia) that the divine oracles have lost their powers because people have changed, and this caused some "defects of the oracles" at Delphi.

During a discussion of Plato's "Timaeus", Cleombrotus who had made many excursions in Egypt and about the land of the cave-dwellers and who had sailed beyond the Persian Gulf  (1) begins by stating that it is not entirely clear whether the doctrine of the demons originally derived from the Magi, the disciples of Zoroaster, from Orpheus, from the Egyptians, or from the Phrygians. It begins with a discussion about of Hesiod's fragment 304, because the Nymphs that are mentioned there and included among the demons (2), and then addresses Hesiod's riddle from fragment 183 (ed. Rzach):

Nine generations long is the life of the crow

and its cawing,

(9)

Nine generations of vigorous men. The lives of

four crows together

(9x4=36)

 Equal the life of a stag, and three stags the

old age of a raven;

(3x36=108)

 Nine of the lives of the raven the life of the

Phoenix do equal,

(108x9=972)

 Ten of the Phoenix we Nymphs, fair daughters

of Zeus of the aegis."

(972x10=9720)

            The inserted numbers are based on Plutarch’s suggestion to use the smallest "unit of one" as a metaphor for vigor. It replaces the problematic “generations” and allows Plutarch to propose the above 9720, which is "less than most mathematicians think, and more than Pindar has stated when he says that the Nymphs are Allotted a term as long as the years of a tree, and for this reason he calls them Hamadryads. ". After questioning the claim of the Nymphs, he adds:

Some make "in their vigor" 30 years, according to Heraclitus, while others write "in their eld" and assign 108 years to a generation; for they say that 54 marks the limit of the middle years of human life, a number which is made up of the first number, the first two plane surfaces, two squares and two cubes, numbers which Plato also took in his Generations of the Soul."

(1 + (1x2) + (1x3) +4 +9 + 8 + 27=54)

            It is a well-known fact that Plato's Timaeus was widely read during the Middle Ages, although only a fraction of the population was capable of it. The above numbers were obviously discussed as well, because Wolfram says in "Parzival" (P.470) that the grail gives the Phoenix the power of rebirth. Otto Springer (3) writes, probably quoting Eggers:

Wolfram, like other medieval poets and in spite of his supposed illiteracy, has indulged in an almost mathematical symmetry as to the number of lines and sections allotted to major parts of his work. If we discount the first 108 sections of 30 lines each which constitute the Gahmuret prelude, we are left with 324 sections (109-432) before and 324 sections (503-826) after the Ninth Book, which itself numbers exactly 70 sections.

            Furthermore, the oldest manuscript of Parzival, the Sankt Gallen, has each page divided into two columns of 54 lines, totaling 108, which is an indication that the poet intended it this way. We don't really know what went through his mind, but we can imagine that six sections of 108 around a core of 70 could be put together like a star or hexagram. However, we would have to "discount the first 108 sections" as professor Springer recommends.

          If we look at Plutarch’s calculation of 972 years for the lifespan of the phoenix, our calculation of 854 poses a serious problem. Our search for truth takes us to the Nymphs, who claim a lifespan of 10 phoenixes. Because we know what the phoenix looks like, we have no reason to trust the nymphs, who dwell in the lower, moist regions, and should look at Zeus: Plutarch spells his name with a capital delta, a fiery triangle, which complements his shield as the watery triangle. Thus, the hexagram (or phoenix) is a divine symbol of Zeus and can't be surpassed by his daughters. That they are lying is supported by the fact that the only quote in the riddle is their claim. Hence, the truth forces us to subtract their lies: 972-10 = 962.

        This simplifies the next step, because we know that 108 needs to be discounted to reach 854 -- which is also implied by Wolfram. If truth is again the issue, most lifespans are plausible. Even the ripe old age of 108 years for a raven, but why did our ups and downs take us twice to black birds? Wolfram uses a black and white bird, the  magpie as a symbol of doubt, and mentions Zoroaster like Plutarch. Because we are seeking truth, enlightenment, we simply subtract the "darkness" of 108 and have the lifespan of a phoenix as 962-108 = 854.

        Because 854 may turn out as a major discovery, many critics and skeptics will probably accuse us of over-simplifying an ancient mystery. They may be forgetting the most famous riddle in history, the Riddle of the Sphinx from Greek mythology:

The Sphinx sat on a high rock and guarded the entrance of Thebes. Although the exact wording varies from source to source, she asked each traveler the following question: “What has one voice and goes in the morning on four legs, at mid-day on two, and in the evening on three, and the more legs it has, the weaker it gets?” She strangled and devoured anyone unable to answer, until Oedipus solved the riddle: "Man, who crawls on all fours as a baby, walks on two feet as an adult, and with a cane in old age". Bested at last, the tale continues, the Sphinx threw herself from the rock and died.

        This supports our position that the Phoenix Myth, like the Holy Grail, could have simple solutions. Our findings suggest that Plutarch knew of reports that the phoenix was seen in 860 and 6 BCE. The connection to the birth and resurrection of Christ has often been made by the early Church, but only one text has been found so far that actually show that the phoenix and "Christmas Star" are one and the same phenomenon.

            The quote is from the Dutch scholar R. van den Broek, author of "The Myth of the Phoenix", whom we are greatly indebted for our findings. He translated a Coptic sermon from the 6th century, which mentions several appearances of the phoenix, including the one in 6 BCE that announced the birth of Christ (4):

     ...There is a bird called Phoenix. This bird, when the fire came

     from heaven and consumed the sacrifice of Abel the righteous,

     the fire of that sacrifice (now) consumed that bird at the same

     time, reduced it to ashes... 

     This bird indicates to us the resurrection of the Lord. Just as the

     bee eats from the flowers of the field which are wax to it, and

     from the dew of heaven which is honey to it, so too the phoenix

     lives on the dew of heaven and the flowers of the trees of Libanon.

     At the time (now) that God brought the children out of Egypt by the

     hand of Moses, the phoenix showed itself on the temple of On

     (i.e. Heliopolis), the city of the sun...

 

     According to the number of its years it was the tenth time since

     genesis after the sacrifice of Abel that it made a sacrifice of itself:

     in this year (now) the Son of God was born in Bethlehem. And on

     the day the priest Zechariah was killed, they installed the priest

     Simeon in his place. The phoenix burned itself on the pinnacle

     of the temple in Jerusalem. On the eighth day after the holy Virgin

     had brought fourth our Savior, she took him with Joseph to the

     temple in order to make a sacrifice for him as firstborn, he was

     named Jesus. From that moment on no one has ever seen this

     bird up to this day.  Our fathers have born witness: God shall

     shame the idol worshippers on the day of judgment because of

     this bird, because ... you have not looked at this same bird ...

     which after three days lives and assumes its former shape. This

     bird (now) indicates to us the resurrection..."

Van den Broek has done substantial research on the phoenix and shows that it figured in Judeo-Christian traditions since Antiquity. On the subject of God's preference of Abel's sacrifice over Cain's (5), he compares texts on the heavenly fire that descended at the consecration of the temple at Jerusalem (2 Chron. vii.1), with the same event when Elijah sacrificed on Mount Carmel (I Kings xviii.38). Since the Copts connected this "divine fire" with the death and rebirth of the phoenix, we practically have conclusive evidence that this consecration occurred in 860 BC, the year of Elijah's sacrifice and of Elisah's birth. This is further supported by the fact that in 1 Kings 19:16, the following chapter, the Lord told Elijah to anoint Elisah to be prophet in your place.   

According to Margherita Guarducci, whom we quoted on the excavations of Peter's tomb, "a remarkable double phoenix (was) found in the tomb of Valerii in the necropolis below the Vatican. A niche in this grave carries a drawing of the head of Christ, the upper part of which makes a transition into two birds joined by one body. Guarducci, who discovered this drawing, dates it at the end of the third or the beginning of the fourth century. On the common body of the two birds is the word Vibus (=vivus, the living one), and next to the right hand bird appears the word Pho(e)neus (corrected by the same hand to read phoeniceus) avis, "the Phoenician" or "purple-red bird". Under the left head is written vixisti (thou hast lived), and over the right head avis (r)evibis "thou liveth again, bird".(6)

Another artistic rendering of the phoenix is offered by the Latin poet Claudian, an Egyptian by birth, who arrived in Rome during the late 4th century. This quote indicates that Claudian (7) was familiar with our heavenly star that dissolves in the rays of the sun:

... according to Claudian, the deterioration of the phoenix is expressed in the weakening of the bird's light, in the slow extinguishing of its  star, and the impotence of its wings...

The light that diminishes is the light that shines around the phoenix in a fiery ring and the star that fades is the star that rises above its head and pierces the dark with its brilliant light...

Claudian compares the decreasing light of this star with that of the moon retiring behind clouds ... We shall see that in Claudian it is in this sense, as bird of the sun, that the phoenix makes an appeal to the sun in order to accomplish the renewal of its life."

 

 The "Black Obelisk" at the British Museum shows the Israelite King Jehu paying tribute to king Shalmaneser III of Assyria (859-824 BCE). The bas-relief is from Nimrud, in northern Iraq, where it was erected as a public monument in 825 BCE. The above detail may be the earliest depiction of the phoenix, and it certainly fits Claudian's description. The same symbolism is used by the French poet Chrétien de Troyes, when he says the grail "shines so brightly, the light of candles fades like the stars when the sun or moon appear'. We know that he adapted Ovid's Metamorphoses before creating Arthurian romance, which is one of many examples that he studied his earlier Latin colleagues.

His version of Perceval's quest opened the grail cycle in the 1180's, which was continued by two poets of the following generation, Robert de Boron and Wolfram von Eschenbach. In a brilliant construction of multi-layered allegories, the French poet captured the spiritual ideals, Robert added some material facts (l'estoire), and Wolfram's adaptation completed the trilogy with a "triangular fusion" of both to reveal the secret truth (of Mazadan). Their poetic magic (and alchemy) will be used to study the events of 849 CE, when the phoenix was seen again -- with serious consequences. If their works are interpreted correctly, the long-awaited "Second Coming" was tragically overlooked by the Church. And, if additional sources are reliable, the Vatican discovered this dilemma centuries after the fact. Apparently, Peter’s Chair in Rome was saved by an elaborate cover-up when crusaders and inquisitors eliminated the evidence and scribes "under orders" falsified the records. It would have been a fait accomplit, had not the Chrétien taken great "pains to rhyme the mellor conte”, and for which he probably paid the ultimate penalty. 

Bibliography

1.        Plutarch’s Moralia, Pearson/Sandbach, Harvard, Vol. XI, pp.381-387

2.        Ibid. p.

3.        Otto Springer, Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, ed. R. S. Loomis, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1959, p.247

4.        R. van den Broek, The Myth of the Phoenix, Brill, Leiden, Holland, 1972, pp.44-47

5.        Ibid. p.119

6.        Ibid. p.159

7.        Ibid. p.163

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