Dr. Alexandre Amato
The Phoenix – “Most beings are born of other individuals, but there is a certain species that reproduces on its own. The Assyrians call it the phoenix. It does not live on fruits or flowers, but on incense and fragrant roots. After living five hundred years, it builds a nest in the branches of an oak, or at the top of a palm tree. In it, it gathers cinnamon, spikenard, and myrrh, and with these essences it builds a pyre upon which it settles, and dies, breathing its last breath amid the perfumes. From the bird’s body arises a young phoenix, destined to live as long as its predecessor. After growing and gaining sufficient strength, it lifts the nest from the tree (its own cradle and its father’s sepulcher) and carries it to the city of Heliopolis, in Egypt, depositing it in the temple of the Sun.” OVID, poet
