In both ancient Greek and Egyptian mythology, the phoenix is a mythical bird and though to be the servant of the sun god. It lives in Arabia, close to a cool well. Each morning at dawn, it would bathe in the water and sing such a beautiful song that the sun god stops his chariot to listen. There only exists one phoenix at a time. When it felt it's death appoaching (every 500 or 1461 years), it would buikld a nest and set it on fire, and was consumed by flames. When it was burned, a new phoenix sprang forth from the pyre. It then embalmed the ashes of it's predecessor in an egg of myrrh and flew with it to the City of the Sun. There it would deposit the egg on the altar of the sun god. In Egypt it was usually depicted as a heron, but in classic literature as a peacock or an eagle. The phoenix symbolizes immortality, resurrection and life after of death. In that aspect it was often placed on sarcophagi. It is associated with the Egyptian Benoe, the Garuda of the Hindus and the Chinese Feng.