What is the Benu bird, the Egyptian phoenix?

The Benu of Heliopolis, a form of the sun god’s soul, linked with the first sunrise and with renewal.

What the sign shows: A grey heron with a long crest.
How Gerald Massey read it in 1907: Massey takes the Greek story of the phoenix straight back to this bird and to the sun that dies and rises.
Where you see it today: “Rising like a phoenix” is still an everyday phrase.
Where it stands in Massey’s book: Massey names it 25 times across the book. Book IX, p. 595: “Why the patriarchs lived so long”; Book IX, p. 596: “Lifetimes cut down to size”; Book XI, p. 721b: “Esdras and the returning bride”.
Signs that look like it: Ibis, Akh and Ba. The app’s Symbol Trainer sets them side by side, so the eye learns to tell them apart.
In Massey’s words: “The phœnix was the emblem of the solar god who died to resuscitate in the nest of Amenta.” (Gerald Massey, Ancient Egypt: The Light of the World (1907), Book VIII, p. 493)
In the app: Trainer › Symbol Trainer › Benu bird. The app’s Symbol Trainer reads 42 signs this way, each with Massey’s own words and the page they stand on.

Last updated October 25, 2026.

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