While modern pop culture focuses almost exclusively on the phoenix’s cycle of death and rebirth (which spans 500 or 1000 years in classical mythology), the fourth-century writer Lactantius frames the phoenix’s daily routine as essential to the cosmic clock.

In his poem De Ave Phoenice, the phoenix is represented as the timekeeper of the cosmos, marking the passage of time on both a daily and epochal scale. Its morning song and bathing ritual signals the start of the day. Lactantius writes that by causing the sun god to pause his journey across the sky to listen to its divine song, the phoenix directly alters the sun’s path across the heavens, thereby actively governing the progression of time itself.

Scholars note that Lactantius links the phoenix’s continuous rebirth and ritualistic song to the eternal, unbroken cycle of the universe (the Great Year), making the phoenix a living embodiment of time’s endless renewal. 

If you are interested in learning more, this thesis is worth a read.