I don't know about you, Dungeon Meshi Maniacs, but the tuxedo rental place has been after me since last week! Turns out they expect those back without duck fat grease stains on them. Kinda wish they had told me that before I cooked in it. Let this be a lesson, always wear an apron! Maybe I should try setting the tux on fire in hopes that it'll rise from the ashes better than ever? What a masterful pivot into this week's topic! Let's take a quick (and I mean quick) look at the monster we cooked last week. The wondrous Phoenix!
Oh, Yaad. How I wish I could carry you on my back. *sigh* Of all the monsters we've talked about during this journey I'm willing to bet you already know the most about the Phoenix. It is a bird that grows old, dies, bursts into flames, and from the ashes a younger version of itself flies away. No word as to whether it can practice law, DMMs. Just that it is a bird of eternal renewal. The Phoenix is a very famous bird! Here's the interesting thing, even though everybody knows the Phoenix's deal there aren't many actual stories about the bird! It just doesn't show up in the legendary journeys, myths or writings until the more modern times. Seriously! Hercules never wrestled a Phoenix. Jason didn't sail into one. Nothing. How could such a famous bird not have any legendary tales attached to it? My pet theory? The Phoenix was real.
"This slime's finally lost it. Try and lure it to the basement." I can hear you whispering right to my face. Trust me, DMMs, I'm mentally fit as a poorly tuned fiddle! Of course I don't mean the Phoenix was an actual bird. That would be silly. No, the people of the time believed it was real. The writings don't have that same tall tales associated with other mythological beasts. They talk about the Phoenix with the same excitement you would a goat. You can trace the "evolution" of the Phoenix to ancient Egypt but the bird we all know and love comes from ancient Roman. The writings from the time talked of the Phoenix not as if it were real, they truly believed it was real. How? Because they saw it! The Phoenix made into Natural History written by Pliny the Elder.
Ancient naturalist sure were lookers! Granted, Pliny didn't 100% believe the Phoenix was real. He does mention that it is a famous bird of India/Arabia and that other Romans have first hand accounts of the Phoenix. The facts that Pliny reports are there is only one Phoenix at any time, it's very pretty and lives around 540 years. So it wasn't treated entirely as a fabrication, just a kinda weird bird. You typically don't write great epics involving a long lived bird. Pliny does tell of the time a Phoenix was presented to Emperor Claudius but everyone totally knew it was a fake. From there Pliny roles into how awesome eagles are which I totally get. Eagles are pretty cool.
Given Romans location in the world and the major trade routes they saw all sorts of weird and interesting birds. The two were mostly likely confused for a Phoenix are the Demoiselle Crane and the Golden Pheasant.
I'll assume you know which is which, DMMs. The Demoiselle Crane definitely has the classic Phoenix shape and was used as a Phoenix on coinage made by Emperor Antonius Pius. While the Golden Pheasant closely matches the description of the Phoenix written down by Pliny. I personally like the Demoiselle Crane, DMMs. Less flash and more substance! Once Rome started to decline the Phoenix started to be closely associated with Christianity. Makes sense, Jesus died and came back to life and everyone loves looking at pretty bird images. So the Phoenix shows up in early Christian iconography. According to some medieval bestiaries the Phoenix would make a coffin for itself make of frankincense and myrrh to die in. That will be a very nice smells funeral pyre, DMMs! Probably the most famous writing about a Phoenix coming from the modern era was written by this guy...maybe...probably...
The Phoenix and the Turtle is poem by William Shakespeare is an early type of metaphysical poem that tells the story of a funeral for two lovers; a Phoenix and a Turtledove. Since this is a poem and one written by Shakespeare the interpretations are pretty broad. It is a nice poem about two an impossible love between an immortal beauty and a very mortal commoner. Also, crows aren't invited to the funeral for unknown reasons. I'm sure they know why. Give it a read if you haven't!
Don't give me that look, DMMs. Shakespeare is a lot of fun! Part of it is pushing through confusion to find the context! That's it for the Phoenix, the totally real bird that didn't go on any adventures. Some things are just that awesome. They don't need to do anything more than exist. I know you think we can't top last week's dish, DMMs. Trust me, you will not want to miss next week. We will be cooking one of the more famous recipes from Dungeon Meshi and I cannot wait to share it with you. Come back in seven to find out what I'm talking about!
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