Rise Like a Phoenix From the Ashes

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Candace Osmond

Candace Osmond studied Advanced Writing & Editing Essentials at MHC. She’s been an International and USA TODAY Bestselling Author for over a decade. And she’s worked as an Editor for several mid-sized publications. Candace has a keen eye for content editing and a high degree of expertise in Fiction.

Phoenix rising from the ashes refers to the idea of something being reborn after total destruction, like a comeback so grand it’s simply legendary. Picture a blockbuster movie where the hero loses everything, only to rally back in an even more epic fashion. That’s your phoenix, baby, rising from the ashes, refreshed and ready to conquer the world.

If you’re wondering where this oh-so-dramatic phrase came from, I’ll take you back to ancient Greece and Egypt, where the myth of the phoenix first got its wings.

Phrases like this are the secret sauce of the English language. They help clarify complex ideas in bite-sized morsels and make us sound smart—or at least, like we’ve read a book or two. So, keep reading to rise from the ashes of misunderstanding!

What Does Phoenix Rising Mean?

Rise Like a Phoenix From the Ashes

To rise like a phoenix from the ashes means to emerge from a catastrophe stronger, smarter, and more powerful. An example of rising like a phoenix from the ashes is someone who opens a new, successful business after his previous business has failed.

Another example is someone who builds a new house after his previous house has been destroyed in a tornado.

Origins And History

The phoenix bird is a mythical bird from Greek mythology. It was a feathered creature of great size with talons and wings, its plumage radiant and beautiful. The phoenix lived for 500 years before it built its own funeral pyre, burst into flame, and died, consumed in its own fiery inferno.

Soon after, the mythical creature rose out of the ashes, in a transformation from death to life. This story of becoming born again predates the story of the phoenix rising from the ashes.

A counterpart to the phoenix is the Bennu of Egyptian mythology, which was a large heron venerated in Heliopolis, Egypt. The fenghuang is a Chinese bird often depicted with fireballs. The feathers of the Russian firebird emit light and is often the subject of quests in folklore.

Christianity adopted the depiction of the phoenix rising from the ashes as a symbol of rebirth and eternal life. The classical, mythical imagery and symbolism of resurrection, of life reborn anew and transformed, resonated with the Christian story.

The phrase rise like a phoenix from the ashes is often shortened to rise like a phoenix, or even rise from the ashes. Related phrases are rises like a phoenix from the ashes, rose like a phoenix from the ashes, risen like a phoenix from the ashes, rising like a phoenix from the ashes.

Note that the word phoenix is spelled with a lowercase letter. When capitalized, as in Phoenix, the term is the name of a city in Arizona, United States.

Examples In A Sentence

“I love the way they chose to take care of themselves, that they didn’t fall into the grave and just die — that they made a choice that they were gonna rise like a phoenix from the ashes.” Continues Davis, “Maybe [it’s] not in a way that’s nice and pretty.” (Entertainment Weekly)

Limberakis also spoke of “the extraordinary labor of love that has enabled the Saint Nicholas Shrine to rise like a phoenix from the ashes at Ground Zero.” (The Hellenic New of America)

How China’s capitalist entrepreneurial spirit arose from the ashes of revolution (The South China Morning Post)