In ancient Egypt, ba is the element of a being associated with personality. The aspect ba is part of the soul with many facets. In Egyptian myth the Heron God Benu (Bennu) is considered the ba of Ra.
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The Heron God is also linked to the annual flooding of the Nile. Benu can renew himself every year and also every 500 years. He is the inspiration for the later glorious Greek Phoenix.
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At the time of creation, Benu forms himself, much like the divinity Atum creates himself from the matter and energy of Chaos. As the ba of Ra, he uses this force to enable the creative flow of Atum.
Bennu flies over the waters of Nu(n), the eternal sea. He lands on a rock and gives his call, which identifies the form and nature of creation.
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This is the life/death/rebirth cycle intrinsic to all organisms and the universe itself. In myth it can be associated with the Chaoskampf or primal battle of good vs bad, the destruction of the world and its subsequent resurrection.
As a symbol of death and rebirth Bennu is associated with Osiris, lord of the Underworld. He appears on funerary scarabs or carved talismans. In other portrayals he wears his solar disc. He's carved or painted onto walls or pillars and drawn on papyrus as below.
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Here he is on a barque, drawn on papyrus in a tomb of Irynefer at Deir el-Medina. An Eye of Ra sits on the back post of the boat, a solar disc in front. Deir e-Medina is an artisan town. It's inhabited by the people who work on the tombs in the Valley of the Kings.
The epithets of Benu include He Who Came Into Being by Himself and Lord of Jubilees. The Jubilee celebrates the continued rule of the Egyptian monarch. It's a time of renewal, as herons are thought to renew themselves with the sun.
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While Bennu appears in his home town as a sacred Grey Heron, the ba bird of personality can also be a small songbird or different bird species. Sometimes Bennu perches on a benben stone.
The stone is a representation of Ra, and it's also the top stone of a pyramid. Conversely Bennu may sit in a willow tree, which represents Osiris.
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Due to his link with Osiris, Benu may wear the Atef crown instead of the solar disk, as above. The white crown of Upper Egypt is decorated on both sides with ostrich feathers.
In the 5th century BCE, Greek writer Herodotus claims the Egyptian people of Heliopolis describes the phoenix, saying it lives for 500 years before dying. It then resuscitates and builds a funeral egg with myrrh for the corpse of its parent.
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The new Phoenix carries the egg to the Temple of the Sun at Heliopolis. The bird is described as like an eagle, with red and gold feathers shining like the Sun.
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In most common depictions Benu is biologically a grey heron (Ardea cinerea), native to Europe, Asia and Africa. The birds love marsh habitats and can be seen wading with elegant steps at the edges of rivers and reedy shores.
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The average grey heron is about a meter (3.3 ft) tall. In ancient Rome, herons are birds of divination. Gregarious nesters, they build nests in colonies in the higher branches of trees. Both parents incubate the eggs and feed the nestlings.
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