Written and compiled by one hand, the Exeter Book is an incredible source of Anglo-Saxon poetry. Dated to have been written in the latter half of the 10th century, the unknown scribe wrote down the gathered these Christian stories into the codex in the order to which he found most befitting. The first poem in the story about a creature, following poems on Christ himself or saints, is The Phoenix poem. This poem is the 7th text in the Exeter book, positioned between Azarias and Juliana, and its purpose in the Exeter book is to serve as an allegory to Christ in his death, resurrection, and return, as well as an allegory to the Christian soul and the promise of eternal life. The phoenix as a creature is not originally an Anglo-Saxon beast. The first recorded mention of a phoenix-like creature is from ancient Egypt mythology, a creature called Benu or bennu (Hill, 61). The Benu was a sacred bird that symbolized rebirth and renewal, and most commonly thought to be the inspiration for the more commonly known phoenix in Greek mythology first seen in Herrodotus’ Persian wars …show more content…
There are also many allusions to “Deucalion’s flood and Phaethon’s scorching of the earth, and to pagan deities such as Venus and Apollo, Flora and Aeolus. There is frequent use of classical rhetorical figures, especially anaphora, hyperbaton, apostrophe, paronomasia, and syllepsis” (37). Allusions to Christ’s resurrection in Lactantius’ are not prominent. There are only a few clues spread throughout the poem that allude to its Christian theme. This is because Lactantius uses a vocabulary that leads the reader to deduce the meaning of the poem for themselves to discover that the phoenix is meant to represent Christ (37). Lactantius’ allusions become most obvious in the concluding lines of the poem