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D. The phoenix was frequently used to illustrate the doctrine of the
immortality of the soul (_e.g_. in CLEMENT'S _First Epistle to the
Corinthians_), and it is not impossible that originally it was nothing
more than a symbol of immortality which in time became to be believed in
as a really existing bird. The fact, however, that there was supposed to
be only one phoenix, and also that the length of each of its lives
coincided with what the ancients termed a "great year," may indicate
that the phoenix was a symbol of cosmological periodicity. On the other
hand, some ancient writers (e_.g_. TACITUS, A.D. 55-120) explicitly
refer to the phoenix as a symbol of the sun, and in the minds of the
ancients the sun was closely connected with the idea of immortality.
Certainly the accounts of the gorgeous colours of the plumage of the
phoenix m