Two birds, one story: Identifying the Exagoge’s mysterious bird

Abstract

In the Hellenistic poem known as the Exagoge, Moses’ scouts, after discussing the oasis of Elim, describe a resplendent avian creature that is understood by most scholars today as the mythical Phoenix. A closer look at the arguments underpinning this identification reveals, however, numerous holes. This article presents a two-part argument, first to reveal the weaknesses of the arguments in support of the Phoenix, and then to propose an alternate solution to the identification: the bird known as the ortygometra (often erroneously identified simply as a quail). In the first half, the arguments of Howard Jacobson, who most vigorously defends the Phoenix identity, are evaluated, drawing mostly upon the work of an underappreciated article by Ben Zion Wacholder and Samuel Bowman. Once the weakness of these arguments is established and the alternative theory of the ortygometra proposed, the second half of the paper looks first at the history of the term “ortygometra” in Greek and Latin, from Aristotle through Augustine, revealing that the term was either collapsed into a synonym for “quail” or its identity was kept distinct. Following this is an analysis of the biblical quail narratives (in the MT, LXX, and Vulgate) and a selection of exegeses, which ultimately exposes the fluidity with which the story is treated by subsequent writings. In particular, the explanations found in the Wisdom of Solomon and the Pseudo-Augustinian text De mirabilibus Sacrae Scripturae demonstrate that the ortygometra had gathered more than a few “mythical” characteristics in its journey through tradition. Returning to the Exagoge with these insights yields a more satisfactory identity for the bird and potential witnesses to an early form of the “legendary ortygometra” tradition found in Wisdom and De mirabilibus.