rise from the ashes
rise from the ashes (metaphor)
/raɪz frəm ði ˈæʃɪz/
Meanings
- To recover after complete destruction, failure, or loss.
- To rebuild stronger after disaster or ruin.
- To start fresh with new hope after being broken down.
- Literal: To rise up from the remains of ashes, like something reborn.
Synonyms: rebuild; regenerate; recover; revive; reemerge; rebirth; resurrect.
Example Sentences
- After the devastating fire, the small town managed to rise from the ashes by rebuilding homes and businesses.
- The company went bankrupt, but within a few years, it managed to rise from the ashes with a new business model.
- She faced heartbreak and despair, but she found the strength to rise from the ashes and begin a new chapter in her life.
- After their crushing defeat, the team was determined to rise again from the ashes and win.
- The business, which had nearly failed, is now rising out of the ashes to become a market leader.
- The myth says that the phoenix would rise from the ashes every 500 years, symbolizing immortality. (literal)
Origin and History
The phrase “rise from the ashes” is a powerful idiom rooted in the ancient myth of the phoenix, a legendary bird that regenerates from the remnants of its fiery death. This concept, found in classical literature, was transmitted through late-antique Latin, adapted into Old English poetry, and eventually solidified into the common English idiom we use today.
Mythological and Classical Roots
The core idea of a single, extraordinary bird that dies and is reborn from its own remains is an ancient one. Early classical accounts, particularly from Greek and Roman historians and encyclopedists, frequently associate this wondrous bird with Egypt. While these early sources don’t use the modern English idiom, they are the direct cultural and literary source of the imagery that later evolved into the phrase. The phoenix myth’s persistence in these ancient texts laid the groundwork for its subsequent transmission across centuries and cultures.
The Latin and Old English Connection
The specific “from the ashes” motif was formally established in a full poetic account, De ave phoenice (On the Phoenix Bird), a Latin poem attributed to the 4th-century writer Lactantius or an author in his circle. This work explicitly describes the bird’s demise and rebirth, noting that “it blazes, and is dissolved into burnt ashes… From this… an animal is said to arise.” This Latin poem served as a key textual source for later Christian and vernacular writers.
The story was then adapted into Old English in a long anonymous poem titled The Phoenix, preserved in the 9th-10th century Exeter Book manuscript. This Old English text is the earliest known English-language literary witness to the image. A modern translation of a key line reads, “when he rises once more from the ashes into the life of lives,” which directly mirrors the visual metaphor of the modern idiom centuries before its common usage.
Early-Modern English Usages
By the early modern period, English writers were freely using the phoenix image in figurative language. A notable example appears in Shakespeare’s play Henry VIII (1623 First Folio), where a prophecy of renewal is rendered with the line, “Her ashes new-create another heir.” This use shows the image functioning as a metaphor for renewal and recovery.
Your provided document, Remarks Upon the most Eminent of our Antimonarchical Authors and their Writings, published in 1699, provides a specific, verifiable instance of the modern phrase in print. The text states:
“…that like the Bird of Asia, should rise from the ashes of it’s Ancestors…”
This confirms the idiom had already coalesced into its modern form by the late 17th century and was not a later development of the 18th or 19th centuries.
Origin Conclusion
The concept behind “rise from the ashes” is ancient, rooted in the myth of the phoenix. The earliest surviving textual witnesses that contain the specific “from the ashes” imagery are the 4th-century Latin poem De ave phoenice and the 9th-10th century Old English poem The Phoenix. While early-modern authors like Shakespeare continued to use the phoenix as a metaphor for renewal, the phrase itself had fully formed into its modern idiomatic expression by the late 17th century, as evidenced by your provided document from 1699. This confirms that the idiom’s history is a continuous chain of literary transmission, moving from ancient myth to modern English usage.
Variants
- phoenix rising from the ashes
- rise again from the ashes
- rising out of the ashes
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