I think the answer is that a cycle has no beginning.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Well reasoned

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Haha my response exactly. 7th book FTW!

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I'm around 90% certain that someone is going to come to this comment section to say that phoenixes are not real.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

No the ashes.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

A circle has no beginning.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Woot, another homepage.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

The phoenix came first. If you want to play semantics, it has the ability to be REborn from its ashes. Otherwise, there is nothing that says a phoenix cannot come from not being burned (such as an egg or something). Also, if you believe in evolution, the chicken came first. The egg containing a chicken came before that. The egg FROM a chicken came second (after the chicken). Semantics :).

by Anonymous 13 years ago

wrong the egg that whatever it was before a chicken layed came first. Plus there were dinosaur eggs.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

The thing is, it depends on what egg you're talking about. If we're just talking about "egg" in general, then you're correct. The statement's ambiguous, though.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Some scientists believe that modern chickens came from some species of dinosaurs. THE MORE YOU KNOW

by Anonymous 13 years ago

The correct answer is that a cycle has no beginning. It's from Harry Potter.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Wrong, that is J.K. Rowling's interpretation. It's true, once it's on the cycle, there's no beginning, no end. However, we're talking about what came first, not what happens. Something had to initiate that cycle.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Something may have to initiate the cycle, but that event is usually independent of the cycle itself. Within the actual cycle, there can be no beginning. There can be no end. Otherwise it would no longer be a cycle, but instead a series of related events. A beginning point implies that some type of progress is being made as you move away from that point. But in a cycle you never truly progress because, as you move away from any point you move closer to that same point in the opposite direction. So logically, a cycle has no beginning.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Ok... here's an example: find a picture of a circle. Now, follow it with your finger. The question is asking where you placed your finger first. Once you're on the cycle, there is no beginning or end, as you said. It had to have started somewhere. Our seasons are a cycle but it wasn't always like that (which season came first?) Same can be said about rain and clouds.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

But your example of the circle implies that the cycle had always existed, which is not necessarily the case. Your example of the seasons doesn't work either because more than one season can occur at a time, same with rain and clouds. But the way I saw it ws that a beginning point would be something that causes everything else to happen, but since everything in the cycle has something which causes it, a true beginning can't exist. Saying that there's a beginning point implies that the cycle HAS to have began there and that it couldn't have happened any other way. However, I think you're partially right. In any particular case, one can find where the cycle "began", but the nature of cycles means that you can never generalize it to other cycles. As in, you could maybe find out where Fawkes's cycle began, but you couldn't generalize your conclusion to other phoenices because their cycles could have "began" anywhere and it wouldn't make a difference.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

So, once again, logically a cycle (in the broad sense) has no beginning. You could say that the phoenix came first and you'd be right. You could say that the fire came first and you'd also be right.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're thinking of a cycle as a cause and effect type event, right? In this case, there is no "root," but there is a beginning. A cycle HAD to have started somewhere, may it be the "beginning," "middle," or "end." (I use these for a lack of better words) The way I see it, there are two possibilities to how a new phoenix can come about: - A phoenix has the ability to reproduce and creates a new phoenix. - Fire burned something and through some magical event, a phoenix was born from the ashes. In any case, the cycles of all subsequent phoenixes start the same way.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Actually, according to many legends, phoenices can't reproduce. So the only phoenices around would be the only ones that can ever exist. Anyways, the way I saw it it wouldn't matter where the cycle began that's why there's no "definite" starting point. I was saying that some may have began as the magical flame and some may have began as the bird. That's why we can't definitively say that one came before the other, because it could be right in some cases and not in others. But I'll agree to disagree

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Well, if they came from their own ashes only then they would not be able to populate/reproduce and therefore would never to come to existence, so surely they come initially from their mothers .

by Anonymous 13 years ago

NO DEBATE PLEASUS

by Anonymous 13 years ago

"A circle has no beginning"- Minerva

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Incorrect. Luna Lovegood is credited with that quote.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

McGonnagall answered the "where do vanished objects go?" question.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I feel stupid. My bad

by Anonymous 13 years ago

the fire...goblet of fire is 4th book order of pheonix is 5th.. 4 comes before 5...

by Anonymous 13 years ago

by Anonymous 13 years ago

A circle has no beginning.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Where do vanished objects go?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

i suppose they go into nonbeing...which is to say, everything.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Nicely phrased

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Just read those few pages...Luna must be stoned, of at least plauged with wrackspurts.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

The phoenix because not every fire hatches an egg, but every phoenix when it dies creates a fire.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

a circle has no beginning :)

by Anonymous 13 years ago