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Griffin

April 11, 2024

"Gryphon" redirects here. For other uses, see Griffin (disambiguation), Griffon (disambiguation), and Gryphon (disambiguation).

The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (Ancient Greek: γρύψ, romanized: grýps; Classical Latin: grȳps or grȳpus;[1] Late and Medieval Latin:[2] gryphes, grypho etc.; Old French: griffon) is a legendary creature with the body, tail, and back legs of a lion, and the head and wings of an eagle with its talons on the front legs.

Sassanid bowl with sitting griffin, gilted silver, from Iran.
Restored griffin fresco.
—In the Throne Room, Palace of Knossos, Crete, original from Bronze Age

Overview

Because the lion was traditionally considered the king of the beasts, and the eagle the king of the birds, by the Middle Ages, the griffin was thought to be an especially powerful and majestic creature. Since classical antiquity, griffins were known for guarding treasures and priceless possessions.[3]

In Greek and Roman texts, griffins and Arimaspians were associated with gold deposits of Central Asia. The earliest classical writings derive from Aristeas (7th cent. BC), preserved by Herodotus and Aeschylus (mid 5th century BC), but the physical descriptions are not very explicit. Thus even though they are sharp-beaked, their being likened to "unbarking hounds of Zeus" has led to the speculation they were seen as wingless.

Pliny the Elder (1st century) was the first to explicitly state that griffins were winged and long eared. But Apollonius of Tyana wrote that griffins did not have true bird wings, but only membranous webbed feet that only gave them capability of short-distanced flight. Writers after Aelian (3rd century AD) did not add new material to griffin lore, except for the later lore that griffins deposited agate stone among the eggs in their nest.

Pliny placed the griffins in Æthiopia, and Ctesias (5th century BC) in greater India. Scholars have observed that legends about the gold-digging ants of India may have contaminated griffin lore.

In the Christian era, Isidore of Seville (7th century AD) wrote that griffins were a great enemy of horses. This notion may have readily developed from the tradition that horseback-riding Arimaspians raided the griffin gold.

Nomenclature

Etymology

 
Griffin depicted on obverse side of coin.
—Silver tetradrachm. Abdera (c. 450–430BC).[4][a]

The derivation of this word remains uncertain. It could be related to the Greek word γρυπός (grypos), meaning 'curved', or 'hooked'. Greek γρύφ (gryph) from γρύφ 'hook-nosed' is suggested.[5]

It could also have been an Anatolian loan word derived from a Semitic language; compare the Hebrew word for cherub כרוב kərúv.[6][7]

Persian names

 
Shirdal on the silver cup, Iranian Art.

In the modern Persian language, the griffin has come to be called shirdal (Persian: شیردال), meaning 'lion-eagle'. However, the practice of referring to ancient Iranian griffin objects or monuments as shirdal,[8] is not followed by other current archaeological scholarship (e.g., here[9]).

Possible Old or Middle Iranian names for the creature have been discussed. Middle Persian Sēnmurw in Sasanian culture was a fabulous composite creature, and Russian archaeologist Boris A. Litvinskij [ru] argued for the possibility that the application of this term may extend to the griffin.[10][11] The term Sēnmurw is recognized as the etymological ancestor of simurgh, which is generally regarded as a mythological bird (rather than a composite) in later medieval Persian literature,[12][b] though some argue that this bird may have originated from the Mesopotamian lion-griffin.[13]

There is also the Armenian term Paskuč (Armenian: պասկուչ) that had been used to translate Greek gryp 'griffin' in the Septuagint,[14] which H. P. Schmidt characterized as the counterpart of the simurgh.[12] However, the cognate term Baškuč (glossed as 'griffin') also occurs in Middle Persian, attested in the Zoroastrian cosmological text Bundahishn XXIV (supposedly distinguishable from Sēnmurw which also appears in the same text).[15] Middle Persian Paškuč is also attested in Manichaean magical texts (Manichaean Middle Persian: pškwc), and this must have meant a "griffin or a monster like a griffin" according to W. B. Henning.[16] Deir El Bersha

Egyptian names

The griffin was given names which were descriptive epithets, such as tštš[c] or tesh-tesh[17] meaning "Tearer[-in-pieces]"[18][17] inscribed on a griffin image found in a tomb at Deir El Bersha;[19][21] and sfr/srf "fiery one", attested at Beni Hasan.[22][23] The descriptive epithet "Tearer" is not uniquely applied to the griffin beast, and tštš (Teš-teš) has also been used to denote the god Osiris elsewhere.[24][27]

Form

See also: § Medieval iconography, and § Variants
 
Bronze figure of a griffin, Roman period (AD 50–270)

Most statuary representations of griffins depict them with bird-like forelegs and talons, although in some older illustrations griffins have a lion's forelegs (see bronze figure, right); they generally have a lion's hindquarters. Its eagle's head is conventionally given prominent ears; these are sometimes described as the lion's ears, but are often elongated (more like a horse's), and are sometimes feathered.

Cauldron figurines

The griffin of Greece, as depicted in cast[d] bronze cauldron protomes (cf. below), has a squat face with short beaks[e] that are open agape as if screaming, with the tongue showing.[30] There is also a "top-knob" on its head or between the brows.[30]

Tendrils

 
Griffins and lions on cauldron. Etruscan.
—8th - 7th centuries B.C., from Barberini tomb. National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia, Rome.[31]

There may also be so-called "tendrils", or curled "spiral-locks" depicted, presumably representing either hair/mane or feather/crest locks dangling down. Single- or double-streaked tendrils hang down both sides and behind the griffin's neck, carven on some of the Greek protomes.[30][32][f] The tendril motif emerged at the beginning of the first millennium, BC., in various parts of the Orient.[33] The "double spiral of hair running downwards from the base of the ear" is said to be a hallmark of Iranian (Uratrian) art.[34] The Etruscan cauldron-griffins (e.g., from Barberini tomb [it], figure right[g][h]) also bear the "curled tresses" that are the signature of Uratrian workmanship.[35][i] Even the ornate crests on Mycenean griffins (such as the fresco of the Throne Room, figure top of page) may be a development of these curled tresses.[38][j]

Top-knob

One prominent characteristic of the cauldron griffins is the "top-knob between the brows"[30] (seemingly situated at the top of the head[39]).

The top-knob feature has clear oriental origins.[40] Jack Leonard Benson says these appendages were "topknots" subsequently rendered as "knobs" in later development of the cauldron Griffins.[41] Benson's emphasis is that the Greeks attached a stylized "anorganic" topknot[41] or an "inorganic" plug on the griffin's head (due to lack of information),[41][k] while in contrast, a known oriental example (stone protomes from Nimrud) is simple but more "plausible" (naturalistic), resembling a forelock.[42]

Warts

A cluster of "warts" between the eyes are also mentioned.[43] One conjecture is that these derive from the bumps (furrows) on a lion's snout.[44] Another view regards the wart as deriving from the bumpy cockscomb on a rooster or other such fowls.[45]

Art in antiquity

 
Griffin seal impression.
—Susa, Iran. 4th millennium B.C.). Louvres.[46][47]
 
Bronze griffins from ancient Luristan, Iran, 1st millennium BC.

Mesopotamia

Griffin-like animals were depicted on cylinder seals in Mesopotamia c. 3000 BC,[48] perhaps as early as the Uruk period (4000–3100BC) and subsequent Proto-Elamite (Jemdet Nasr) period.[47] An example of a winged lion with beaks, unearthed in Susa (cf. fig. right[46]) dates to the 4th millennium B.C., and is a unique example of a griffin-like animal with a male lion's mane.[47] However, this monster then ceased to continue to be expressed after the Elamite culture.[47]

What the Sumerians of the Early Dynastic period portrayed instead were winged lions, and the lion-headed eagle (Imdugud).[49]

In the Akkadian Empire that succeeded Sumer, early examples (from early 3rd millennium BC[50]) of lions with bird heads appeared on cylinder seals, shown pulling the chariots for its rider, the weather god.[52][53] The "lion-griffin" on Akkadian seals are also shown as fire-belching, and shaggy (at the neck) in particular examples.[54][49][50]

The bronzeworks of Luristan, the North and North West region of Iran in the Iron Age, include examples of Achaemenid art depicting both the "bird-griffin" and "lion-griffin" designs, such as are found on horse-bits.[55][8] Bernard Goldman maintains the position that Luristan examples must be counted as developments of the "lion-griffin" type, even when it exhibits "stylization .. approaching the beak of a bird".[56] The Luristan griffin-like creatures resemble and perhaps are descended from Assyrian creatures, possibly influenced by Mitannian animals,[57][58] or perhaps there had been parallel development in both Assyrian and Elamite cultures.[55]

Iran

Bird-headed mammal images appeared in art of the Achaemenian Persian Empire. Russian jewelry historian Elena Neva maintained that the Achaemenids considered the griffin "a protector from evil, witchcraft, and secret slander",[59] but no writings exist from Achaemenid Persia to support her claim. R.L. Fox (1973) remarks that a "lion-griffin" attacks a stag in a pebble mosaic at Pella, from the 4th century BC,[60][61] perhaps serving as an emblem of the kingdom of Macedon or a personal emblem of Antipater, one of Alexander's successors.

A golden frontal half of a griffin-like animal from the Ziwiye hoard (near Saqqez city) in Kurdistan Province, Iran resembles the western protomes in style.[62][l] They were of Urartian workmanship (neither Assyrian or Scythian),[m][34] though the hoard itself may have represented a Scythian burial.[63] The animal is described as having a "visor" (i.e., beaks) made by Urartian craftsmen, similar to what is found on Greek protomes.[34]

Egypt

Representations of griffin-like hybrids with four legs and a beaked head appeared in Ancient Egyptian art dating back to before 3000 BC.[64] The oldest known depiction of a griffin-like animal in Egypt appears as a relief carving on slate on the cosmetic palette from Hierakonpolis,[66] the Two Dog Palette[67] dated to the Early Dynastic Period,[68] c. 3300–3100 BC.[69]

Near East elsewhere

Griffin-type creatures combining raptor heads and mammalian bodies were depicted in the Levant, Syria, and Anatolia during the Middle Bronze Age,[70][71] dated at about 1950–1550 BC.[72]

Greece

See also: § Divine creature
 
Bronze griffin head fragment (of a cauldron protome)
—Olympia, Greece. 7th century BC. Olympia museum

Griffin-type animals appeared in the art of ancient Crete in the MM III Period (1650–1600 BC) in Minoan chronology, found on sealings from Zakro and miniature frescos dated to this period.[73] One early example of griffin-types in Minoan art occurs in the 15th century BC frescoes of the Throne Room of the Bronze Age Palace of Knossos, as restored by Sir Arthur Evans.

The griffin-like hybrid became a fixture of Aegean culture since the Late Bronze Age,[74] but the animal called the gryps or griffin in Greek writings did not appear in Greek art until about 700 BC,[34] or rather, it was "rediscovered" as artistic motif in the 8th to 7th centuries BC, adapting the style of griffin current in Neo-Hittite art.[74][75] It became quite popular in the 6th and 5th centuries BC, when the Greeks first began to record accounts of the "gryps" creature from travelers to Asia, such as Aristeas of Proconnesus. A number of bronze griffin protomes on cauldrons have been unearthed in Greece (on Samos, and at Olympia, etc., cf. fig. right).[76] Early Greek and early Etruscan (e.g. the Barberini) examples of cauldron-griffins may have been of Syric-Urartian make, based on evidence (the "tendrils" or "tresses" motif was already touched upon, above), but "Vannic (Urartian) originals" have yet to be found (in the Orient).[77] It has thus been controversially argued (by Ulf Jantzen [de]) that these attachments had always since the earliest times been crafted by Greek workshops,[n] added to the plain cauldrons imported from the Near East.[o] Detractors (notably K. R. Maxwell-Hyslop) believe that (early examples of[78]) the griffin-ornamented cauldron, in its entirely, were crafted in the East, though excavated finds from the Orient are scarce.[79][80]

Central Asia

In Central Asia, the griffin image was included in Scythian "animal style" artifacts of the 6th–4th centuries BC, but no writings explain their meaning.[citation needed] The Golden Pectoral from Tovsta Mohyla, interred in Scythian king's burial site, perhaps commissioned to Greek goldsmiths, who engraved the image of a griffin attacking a horse. Other Scythian artifacts show griffins attacking horses, stags, and goats. Griffins are typically shown attacking horses, deer, and humans in Greek art. Nomads were said to steal griffin-guarded gold according to Scythian oral traditions reported by Greek and Roman travelers.

 
Griffin inscription at Sanchi Stupa from 3rd century BCE

Ancient parallels

Several ancient mythological creatures are similar to the griffin. These include the Lamassu, an Assyrian protective deity, often depicted with a bull or lion's body, eagle's wings, and human's head.

Sumerian and Akkadian mythology feature the demon Anzu, half man and half bird, associated with the chief sky god Enlil. This was a divine storm-bird linked with the southern wind and the thunder clouds.

Jewish mythology speaks of the Ziz, which resembles Anzu, as well as the ancient Greek Phoenix. The Bible mentions the Ziz in Psalms 50:11. This is also similar to a cherub. The cherub, or sphinx, was very popular in Phoenician iconography.

In ancient Crete, griffins became very popular, and were portrayed in various media. A similar creature is the Minoan Genius.

In the Hindu religion, Garuda is a large bird-like creature that serves as a mount (vahana) of the deity Vishnu. It is also the name for the constellation Aquila.

Classical accounts

Herodotus, etc.

Local lore on the griffin was gathered by Aristeas of Proconnesus, a Greek who traveled to the Altai region between Mongolia and NW China in the 7th century BC. Although Aristeas's original poem was lost, the griffin lore preserved in secondhand accounts by the playwright Aeschylus (ca. 460 BC), and later his contemporary, Herodotus the historian.[81][82]

Herodotus explains (via Aristeas) that the gold-guarding griffins supposedly dwelled further north from the one-eyed Arimaspi people[p] who robbed the gold from the fabulous creatures. Aristeas is said to have been informed through the Issedones people neighboring region to the Arimaspi, in the northern extremes (of Central Asia).[85][86] Aeschylus also concurs that the Arimaspi robbed the gold which the griffins collected from various areas in the periphery (presumably including the Armaspi's territorial stream, the stream of Pluto "rolling with gold"). The equestrian Arimaspi would ride off with the loot, and the griffins would give pursuit.[88]

Aeschylus likened the griffins to "silent hounds of Zeus"[89][q] That they are called dogs or hounds here has led to the conjecture that Aeschylus considered them wingless or flightless.[81][r]

Gryphons of India and gold-digging ants

Whereas Ctesias, had located the griffins in India, and more explicitly classed them as beaked, four-legged birds.[81]

Herodotus also mentions elsewhere that there are gold-collecting ants in Kashmir, India, and this has been interpreted by modern scholars as "doublets or garbled versions" of the lore of gold-hoarding griffins.[90] It appears that the accounts of griffins given by Pliny had been admixed with the lore of these gold-guarding ants of India,[89] and later Aelian also inserted attributes of the ant into his description of griffins.[83]

Pliny and later

Later, Pliny the Elder became the first to explicitly state the griffins as having wings and long ears.[91][92][s] In one of the two passages, Pliny also located the "griffons" in Æthiopia.[92] According to Adrienne Mayor, Pliny also wrote, "griffins were said to lay eggs in burrows on the ground and these nests contained gold nuggets".[93]

Apollonius of Tyana,[t] who was nearly coeval with Pliny, gave a somewhat unique account of the griffin, claiming them to be lion-sized, and having no true wings, and instead had paws "webbed with red membranes", that gave them ability to makes leaps of flight of only a short distance.[94][81][u]

Pomponius Mela (fl. AD 43) wrote in his Book ii. 6:

In Europe, constantly falling snow makes those places contiguous with the Riphaean Mountains.. so impassable that, in addition, they prevent those who deliberately travel here from seeing anything. After that comes a region of very rich soil but quite uninhabitable because griffins, a savage and tenacious breed of wild beasts, love.. the gold that is mined from deep within the earth there, and because they guard it with an amazing hostility to those who set foot there.[96]

The aforementioned Aelian (Claudius Aelianus, d. 235 AD) added certain other embellishments, such as its reputation of "black plumage on its back with a red chest and white wings".[98] Aelian was the last source on the griffin to add fresh information on the griffin, and late writers (into medieval times) merely rehashed existing material on griffins, with the exception of the lore about their "agate eggs" which emerged at some indistinct time later on (cf. infra).[99]

Divine creature

The griffin has been associated with various deities (Apollo, Dionysus, Nemesis), in Greek mythography but here, the identifiable attested "accounts" presented in scholarship are largely not literary, but artistic,[100] or numismatic.

The griffin was naturally linked to Apollo, given the existence of the cultus of Hyperborean Apollo, with a cult center at the Greek colony of Olbia on the Black Sea.[101][102] And even the main Temple of Apollo at Delphi featured a statue of the god flanked by griffins, or so it can be presumed based on the representation struck on the tetradrachm coinage of Attica.[102] Apollo rode a griffin to Hyperboria each winter, leaving Delphi, or so it was believed.[103] Apollo riding griffin is known from multiple examples of red-figure pottery.[106][107] And Apollo hitched griffins to his chariot according to Claudian.[109]

Dionysus was also depicted on a griffin-chariot[110] or mounting griffin; the motif was borrowed from the god Apollo due to "syncretism between the two gods".[112]

At the Temple of Hera at Samos, a griffin-themed bronze "wine-cup"[113] or "cauldron"[114] had been installed, according to Herodotus. The vessel was attached griffin heads around the rim (like the protomes,[115] described above): it was an Argolic or Argive krater, according to the text,[v] standing on a tripod shaped like colossal figures.[113][114]

Medieval accounts

 
A soldier fighting a griffin, 'Alphonso' Psalter, 1284
 
Stonemasonry with Griffins, late 11th-12th c, Gradina, Rakovac. Serbia
 
Medieval tapestry, Basel, c. 1450 CE

In medieval legend, griffins not only mated for life, but if either partner died, then the other would continue the rest of its life alone, never to search for a new mate.[citation needed] The griffin was thus made an emblem of the Church's opposition to remarriage.[dubious – discuss]

The notion that griffins lay stones or agate instead of eggs was introduced "at some in the evolution of griffin lore".[116] Albertus Magnus (d. 1280) attributes to other writers the claim that "this bird places an 'eagle-stone' (echytem) or agate (gagatem) among its eggs" to change the ambient temperature and enhance reproduction.[117][118]

Christian symbolism

The account of the "gryphes" by Isidore of Seville (d. 636) lacked any Christian allegorical interpretation, and the griffin is classified as a "beast of prey".[119] Thus Isidore (Etymologies xii.2 .17)[5][120] gives:

The Gryphes are so called because they are winged quadrupeds. This kind of wild beast is found in the Hyperborean Mountains. In every part of their body they are lions, and in wings and heads are like eagles, and they are fierce enemies of horses. Moreover they tear men to pieces".[121][119]

Isidore's localization of the griffins in the mountains of Hyperborea derives from Servius (4th and 5th century).[122] Griffins had already been localized Riphean Mountains by Mela (1st century) as quoted above,[96] while the Hyperboreans are sometimes said to dwell further north than these mountains.

The idea that griffins hated horses can be explained as an offshoot of the lore that griffins had their gold stolen by horseback-riding Arimaspians.[123] The griffin were already being depicted attacking the horse in ancient art, as on the gold pectoral of the Scythian King noted above.[101]

Despite Isidore passing on classical without religious connotation, the griffin, being a union of an aerial bird and a terrestrial beast, came to be regarded in Christendom as a symbol of Jesus, who was both human and divine, espoused by many commentators, who see this evidenced in the griffin that draws the chariot in Dante's Purgatorio (cf. §In literature below).[124][125][3]

A slightly different interpretation was that the griffin symbolized the pope or papacy rather than Christ himself, as proposed by French critic Didron, who built this interpretation upon the observation that Herrad of Landsberg's manuscript (Hortus deliciarum, completed c. 1185) clearly depicted the two-colored bird as symbolic of the Church.[124]

At any rate, the griffin can be found sculpted at a number of Christian churches.[125][3]

Claw, egg, feather

 
Martin Schongauer: The griffin, 15th century

Alleged griffin's claws, eggs, and feathers were held as valuable objects, but actually derived from exotic animals, etc.[126][127] The eggs were often ostrich eggs, or in rare cases, fossilized dinosaur eggs.[128] The feather is a piece of forgery, an object crafted from raffia palm fiber, with painted colors.[129]

The supposed claws were often turned into drinking cups[126][130] (and griffin egg artifacts were also used as goblets, according to heraldry scholars).[126][131][132]

A number of medieval griffin's claws existed, sometimes purported to be very large.[133] St. Cuthbert is said to have obtained claw and egg: two claws and two eggs were registered in the 1383 inventory of the saint's shrine,[134] but the two-feet claws that still remain on display have been identified as Alpine ibex horns.[130]

There is said to be a legend that a griffin's claw was made into a cup and dedicated to Cuthbert.[135] As a matter of fact, griffin claws were frequently fashioned into goblets (drinking cups) in medieval Europe,[126][130] and specific examples can be given, such as Charlemagne's griffin-claw drinking horn, formerly at Saint-Denis and now housed in the Bibliothèque Nationale, is a drinking cup made of a bovine horn. Additional ornamentation were attached to it, such as a gilt copper leg for it to stand on, realistically resembling the taloned foot of a raptor.[136][w] Kornelimünster Abbey located in Charlemagne's former capital of Aix-la-Chapelle (now Aachen, Germany) also houses a griffin horn of Pope Cornelius, made of Asian buffalo horn.[137]

Medieval iconography

 
Byzantine silk with griffins, 11th century, now in Sion, Switzerland

By the 12th century, the appearance of the griffin was substantially fixed: "All its bodily members are like a lion's, but its wings and mask are like an eagle's."[138] It is not yet clear if its forelimbs are those of an eagle or of a lion. Although the description implies the latter, the accompanying illustration is ambiguous. It was left to the heralds to clarify that.

Griffins also appear on a wide range of medieval luxury objects, such as textiles, and in these contexts are part of a shared visual language deployed by artisans in the Byzantine, western medieval, and Islamic worlds.[139]

Folklore

According to Stephen Friar's New Dictionary of Heraldry, a griffin's claw was believed to have medicinal properties and one of its feathers could restore sight to the blind.[3][additional citation(s) needed]

Attestation of griffin's feather as cure for blindness does occur in an Italian folktale,[140] classed as "The Singing Bone" tale type (ATU 780).[141] There is also a study that considers the griffin's feather tale as a variant of "The Twa Sisters" ballad (Child Ballad 10), as the tale incorporates the song in Italian, supposedly sung by the bones of the murdered finder of the feather).[142] It may not be a griffin's feather but another kind of avian plumage (peacock feather) that remedies blindness in other Italian variants of this folktale type.[143]

In heraldry

See also: List of griffins as mascots and in heraldry
 
A heraldic griffin passant of the Bevan family crest.
 
Griffin segreant wearing the mural crown of Perugia, 13th century
 
Pomeranian coat-of-arms
 
Coat-of-arms of Greifswald, Germany, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
 
The Gryf coat of arms of the knighthood family Gryfici.[x]
 
Coat-of-arms of Crimea

Griffins in heraldry are usually portrayed with the rear body of a lion, an eagle's head with erect ears, a feathered breast, and the forelegs of an eagle, including claws.[144]

The heraldic griffin "denote[d] strength and military, courage and leadership", according to one source.[144] That it became a Christian symbol of divine power and a guardian of the divine,[145] was already touched upon above.

Griffins may be shown in a variety of poses, but in British heraldry are never shown with their wings closed. Heraldic griffins use the same attitude terminology as the lion, with the exception that where a lion would be described as rampant a griffin is instead described as segreant.[146]

In British heraldry, a male griffin is shown without wings, its body covered in tufts of formidable spikes, with a short tusk emerging from the forehead, as for a unicorn.[147] In some blazons, this variant is termed a keythong.[1]. This distinction is not found outside of British heraldry; even within it, male griffins are much rarer than winged ones, which are not given a specific name. One example is John Butler, 6th Earl of Ormond, whose badge was described as featuring a "peyr [pair of] keythongs".[148] It is possible that the male griffin/keythong originated as a derivation of the heraldic panther.[146]

Houses and cities using the device

When Genoa emerged as a major seafaring power in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, griffins commenced to be depicted as part of the republic's coat of arms, rearing at the sides of the shield bearing the Cross of St. George.

The red griffin rampant was the coat of arms of the dukes of Pomerania and survives today as the armorial of West Pomeranian Voivodeship (historically, Farther Pomerania) in Poland. It is also part of the coat of arms of the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, representing the historical region Vorpommern (Hither Pommerania).

Variants

Hippogriff

A hippogriff is a related legendary creature, supposedly the offspring of a griffin and a mare.

Heraldic subtypes

Wingless griffin

Infrequently, a griffin is portrayed without wings, or a wingless eagle-headed lion is identified as a griffin. In 15th-century and later heraldry, such a wingless griffin may be called an alke, a keythong or a male griffin.

Sea-griffin

The sea-griffin, also termed the gryphon-marine, is a heraldic variant of the griffin possessing the head and legs of the more common variant and the hindquarters of a fish or a mermaid. Sea-griffins are present on the arms of a number of German noble families, including the Mestich family of Silesia and the Barony of Puttkamer.[146]

Opinicus

The opinicus or epimacus is another heraldic variety of griffin, which is depicted with the head and wings of an eagle, the body and legs of a lion, and the tail of a camel. It is sometimes wingless. The opinicus is rarely used in heraldry, but appears in the arms of the Worshipful Company of Barbers.[149][150][151]

In architecture

 
The Pisa Griffin, Pisa Cathedral Museum, 11th century
 
Statue of a griffin. St Mark's Basilica, Venice

The Pisa Griffin is a large bronze sculpture that has been in Pisa in Italy since the Middle Ages, though it is of Islamic origin. It is the largest bronze medieval Islamic sculpture known, at over 3 feet tall (42.5 inches, or 1.08 m), and was probably created in the 11th century AD in Al-Andaluz (Islamic Spain).[152][153] From about 1100 it was placed on a column on the roof of Pisa Cathedral until replaced by a replica in 1832; the original is now in the Museo dell' Opera del Duomo (Cathedral Museum), Pisa.

In architectural decoration the griffin is usually represented as a four-footed beast with wings and the head of an eagle with horns, or with the head and beak of an eagle.[citation needed]

The statues that mark the entrance to the City of London are sometimes mistaken for griffins, but are in fact (Tudor) dragons, the supporters of the city's arms.[154] They are most easily distinguished from griffins by their membranous, rather than feathered, wings.

In fiction

For fictional characters named Griffin, see Griffin (surname)

Griffins are used widely in Persian poetry; Rumi is one such poet who writes in reference to griffins.[155]

In Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy story Purgatorio, after Dante and Virgil's journey through Hell and Purgatory has concluded, Dante meets a chariot dragged by a griffin in Earthly Paradise. Immediately afterwards, Dante is reunited with Beatrice. Dante and Beatrice then start their journey through Paradise.

 
Illustration for Mandeville's legend by H. J. Ford, 1899

Sir John Mandeville wrote about them in his 14th century book of travels:

In that country be many griffins, more plenty than in any other country. Some men say that they have the body upward as an eagle and beneath as a lion; and truly they say sooth, that they be of that shape. But one griffin hath the body more great and is more strong than eight lions, of such lions as be on this half, and more great and stronger than an hundred eagles such as we have amongst us. For one griffin there will bear, flying to his nest, a great horse, if he may find him at the point, or two oxen yoked together as they go at the plough. For he hath his talons so long and so large and great upon his feet, as though they were horns of great oxen or of bugles or of kine, so that men make cups of them to drink of. And of their ribs and of the pens of their wings, men make bows, full strong, to shoot with arrows and quarrels.[156][135]

 
Griffin misericord, Ripon Cathedral, alleged inspiration for the Gryphon in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

John Milton in Paradise Lost he mentions the griffin as an allusion to Satan:[157]

As when a Gryfon through the Wilderness

With winged course ore Hill or moarie Dale,
Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stelth
Had from his wakeful custody purloind

The guarded Gold [...]

Theories of origin

Possible influence by dinosaurs

 
Early historic references to the gryphon describe the area of the Dzungarian Gate, a region where Protoceratops and Psittacosaurus skeletons are very common.

Adrienne Mayor, a classical folklorist and historian of science, has speculated that the way the Greeks imagined griffins from the seventh century BC onwards may have been influenced in part by the fossilized remains of beaked dinosaurs such as Protoceratops and Psittacosaurus observed on the way to gold deposits by nomadic prospectors of ancient Scythia (Central Asia).[158] This speculation is based on Greek and Latin literary sources and related artworks in a specific time frame, beginning with the first written descriptions of griffins as real animals of Asia in a lost work by Aristeas (referenced by Herodotus, ca. 450 BC) and ending with Aelian (3rd century AD), the last ancient author to report any "new" details about the griffin. Mayor took a paleo-cryptozoological approach, trying to identify the unknown creature by its features: body like a mammal but head with raptor's beak, dwelling in Eastern deserts on way to gold deposits, lays eggs in nest on the ground. No living animal has these characteristics, but some dinosaurs had all of these features, leading to the question of whether ancient nomads who first told Greeks about griffins could have observed fossil skeletons of beaked dinosaurs and nests with eggs.

Mayor argues that Protoceratops and other fossils, seen by ancient observers, may have been interpreted as evidence of a half-bird-half-mammal creature.[159] She argues that repeated oral descriptions and artistic attempts to illustrate a bony neck frill (which is rather fragile and may have been frequently broken or entirely weathered away) may have been rendered as large mammal-type external ears, and its beak may be treated as evidence of a part-bird nature and led to stylized wings being added to accord with the creature's avian-like attributes.[160]

Paleontologist Mark P. Witton has contested this hypothesis, arguing that it ignores the existence of depictions of hybrid creatures bird's heads on mammal bodies throughout the Near East dating to long before the time when Mayor posits the Greeks became aware of Protoceratops fossils in Scythia. Witton further argues that the anatomies of griffins in Greek art are clearly based on those of living creatures, especially lions and eagles, and that there are no features of griffins in Greek art that can only be explained by the hypothesis that the griffins were based on fossils. He notes that Greek accounts of griffins describe them as living creatures, not ancient skeletons, and that some of the details of these accounts suggest griffins are purely imaginary, not inspired by fossils.[161]

Modern culture

Popular fiction

Griffins, like many other fictional creatures, frequently appear within works under the fantasy genre. Examples of fantasy-oriented franchises that feature griffins include Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Warcraft, Heroes of Might and Magic, the Griffon in Dungeons & Dragons, Ragnarok Online, Harry Potter, The Spiderwick Chronicles, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and The Battle for Wesnoth.

Griffins appear in the fairy tales "Jack the Giant Killer", "The Griffin" and "The Singing, Springing Lark".

In Digimon, there is a Digimon called Gryphomon who is based off the depiction of a griffin that has a snake-headed tail.

In The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson, Hazel Levesque, and Frank Zhang are attacked by griffins in Alaska.

In the Harry Potter series, the character Albus Dumbledore has a griffin-shaped knocker. Also, the character Godric Gryffindor's surname is a variation on the French griffon d'or ("golden griffon").

Modern art

 
"Griff" Statue in the forecourt of the Farkashegyi Cemetery Budapest, 2007

The griffin is the symbol of the Philadelphia Museum of Art; bronze castings of them perch on each corner of the museum's roof, protecting its collection.[162][163]

The "Griff" statue by Veres Kálmán [hu] was erected in 2007 at the forecourt of the Farkashegyi cemetery in Budapest, Hungary.

Logos, mascots

 
Municipal official seal (modern) of Heraklion, Greece
 
Merv Griffin Entertainment logo
See also: § Eponymy


An archaic griffin design, created by artist Thomas Fanourakis [el] (1915–1993), was adopted as the official symbol of the city of Heraklion on 22 March 1961 (cf. figure right).[y][164]

Film and television company Merv Griffin Entertainment uses a griffin for its production company. Merv Griffin Entertainment was founded by entrepreneur Merv Griffin and is based in Beverly Hills, California. His former company Merv Griffin Enterprises also used a griffin for its logo.

The griffin is used in the logo of United Paper Mills, Vauxhall Motors, and of Scania and its former partners Saab Group and Saab Automobile.

Similarly, prior to the mid-1990s a griffin formed part of the logo of Midland Bank (now HSBC).

Saab Automobile previously used the griffin in their logo (Cf. Saab fighter Gripen)

Information security firm Halock uses a griffin to represent protecting data and systems.

School emblems and mascots

Further information: List of griffins as mascots and in heraldry
 
The Gryphon is the emblem and mascot of the University of Guelph

Three gryphons form the crest of Trinity College, Oxford (founded 1555), originating from the family crest of founder Sir Thomas Pope. The college's debating society is known as the Gryphon, and the notes of its master emeritus show it to be one of the oldest debating institutions in the country, significantly older than the more famous Oxford Union Society.[165] Griffins are also mascots for VU University Amsterdam,[166] Reed College,[167] Sarah Lawrence College,[168] the University of Guelph, and Canisius College.[citation needed]

The Gryphon is the official school mascot for Raffles Institution, appearing also on the top of the school crest.

The official seal of Purdue University was adopted during the university's centennial in 1969. The seal, approved by the Board of Trustees, was designed by Prof. Al Gowan, formerly at Purdue. It replaced an unofficial one that had been in use for 73 years.[169]

The College of William and Mary in Virginia changed its mascot to Griffin in April 2010.[170][171] The griffin was chosen because it is the combination of the British lion and the American eagle.

The 367th Training Support Squadron's and 12th Combat Aviation Brigade feature griffins in their unit patches.

The emblem of the Greek 15th Infantry Division features an ax-wielding griffin on its unit patch.

The English private school of Wycliffe College features a griffin on its school crest.

The mascot of St Mary's College, one of the 16 colleges in Durham University, is a griffin.

The mascot of Glebe Collegiate Institute in Ottawa is the gryphon, and the team name is the Glebe Gryphons.

The griffin is the official mascot of Chestnut Hill College and Gwynedd Mercy University, both in Pennsylvania.

The mascot of Leadership High School in San Francisco, CA was chosen by the student body by popular vote to be the griffin after the Golden Gate University Griffins, where they operated out of from 1997 to 2000.

The Gryphon is the school mascot for Glenlyon Norfolk School, an independent, co-ed, university preparatory day school in Victoria and Oak Bay, British Columbia, Canada.

Police and military

 
Yellow griffin pictured in the logo of the Estonian Internal Security Service.
 
Flag of the Utti Jaeger Regiment of the Finnish Army

A griffin appears in the official seal of the Waterloo Police Department (Iowa).

The Royal Air Force Police depicts a griffin for their unit badge.

The Royal New Zealand Air Force Police depicts a griffin holding a taiaha for their unit badge.

Professional sports

The Grand Rapids Griffins professional ice hockey team of the American Hockey League.

Suwon Samsung Bluewings's mascot "Aguileon" is a griffin. The name "Aguileon" is a compound using two Spanish words; "aguila" meaning "eagle" and "leon" meaning "lion".

Amusement parks

Busch Gardens Williamsburg's highlight attraction is a dive coaster called the "Griffon", which opened in 2007.

In 2013, Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio opened the "GateKeeper" steel roller coaster, which features a griffin as its mascot.

The logo design of Iran Air features a griffin. The pattern of this design, created by Edward Zahrabian, is based on a griffin statue found in Persepolis. A common mistake regarding this is the assumption that the griffin is the same as the mythical bird Homa, but this is incorrect. This mistake has arisen because the acronym for the National Airline of Iran in Persian is "Homa".

In film and television

Griffins appear in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

Griffins are also present in various animated series such as My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, World of Quest, Yin Yang Yo!, and Family Guy.[172]

A griffin appeared in the 1974 film The Golden Voyage of Sinbad.

In the 1969 movie Latitude Zero, a creature called "Griffin" is made by inserting a woman's brain into a lion–condor hybrid.

In an episode of the sitcom The Big Bang Theory, Dr. Sheldon Cooper mentions that he attempted to create a griffin but could not obtain the "necessary eagle eggs and lion semen".[173]

Eponymy

The latest fighter produced by the Saab Group bears the name "Gripen" (Griffin), as a result of public competition.

During World War II, the Heinkel firm named its heavy bomber design for the Luftwaffe after the legendary animal, as the Heinkel He 177 Greif, the German form of "griffin". General Atomics has used the term "Griffin Eye" for its intelligence surveillance platform based on a Hawker Beechcraft King Air 35ER civilian aircraft.[174]

Fauna names

Some large species of Old World vultures are called griffines, including the griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus). The scientific name for the Andean condor is Vultur gryphus, Latin for "griffin-vulture". The Catholic Douay-Rheims version of the Bible uses griffon for a creature referred to as vulture or ossifrage in other English translations (Leviticus 11:13).

Gallery

See also

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ Abdera minted coins since it was founded in 544 BC as a colony of Teos, which also used the griffin motif.
  2. ^ Also, Sēnmurw etymological root was Avestan mərəγō saēnō (marəya saēna) which also denoted a bird (falcon or eagle),[12] and not a composite, as conceded by Litvinskij.[11]
  3. ^ tštš:


    The "š" glyph seems to be 𓈚 rathe than 𓈙 and are thus superposed in Leibovitch's inline text; however the glyps are juxtaposed and seemingly the plain bar "š" is used on his Fig. 5 line sketch.
  4. ^ The cast pieces could also have additional hammered details.[28] The "cast protomes" are grouped by Jantzen.[29]
  5. ^ The beaks on the Greeks are identified as "visor" of beasts such as seen in Urartian art, by Ghirshman (1964c), p. 108.
  6. ^ The example on figure right is the broken off head, and it is not certain whether the paired spiral-locks ran down its neck, as in other examples of griffin protomes from Olympia (Jantzen, GG no. 80, p. 20).
  7. ^ See the cover photo of this cauldron in Papalexandrou (2021) and Fig. 3.2. The lateral side of the griffins are hard to see on this picture shown right; the lions do not have these hanging tresses. Cf. Fig. 3.3 for another cauldron, from the Bernardini tomb [it]. Both are bronze cauldrons on a conical stand.
  8. ^ An additional example of Etruscan griffin is the one found in Vetulonia, Italy.[35][36]
  9. ^ While Maxwell-Hyslop, thought early griffin protomes were made in the east, she regarded later Etruscan examples as being made locally, imitating the Eastern originals, but such "Vannic (Urartrians) originals" are yet to be found.[37]
  10. ^ In addition to the Throne Room, Goldman provides the following Mycenaean examples: the "ivory plaque of Mycenae" (Demargne, Pierre (1947), La Crète dédalique, fig. 24); the "gold cylinder seal from Pylos" (Blegen, Carl W. (5 December 1953). "A Royal Tomb of Homeric Times", Illustrated London News, fig. 7)
  11. ^ Benson thinks using a simplified "plug" shape was the Greek "solution" to the problem of not knowing exactly what 3-dimensional shape to use, having only access to 2-dimensional renderings from the East.
  12. ^ Ghirshman (and others, cf. Maxwell-Hyslop (1956), p. 160, citing André Godard.) thought the Ziwiye griffin was a protome to a lost cauldron. Goldman thinks this unlikely, as the animal is posed in couchant position, and gold is too soft a metal.
  13. ^ Godard, André (1950), "Le trésor de Ziwiye" at Fig. 30, considered the object a Scythinan import. Cited by Maxwell-Hyslop (1956), p. 160.
  14. ^ That later griffin protomes are Greek-made is "without question" (Goldman (1960), p. 321).
  15. ^ George M. A. Hanfmann agreed with Jantzen that the protomes were always Greek, but disagreed with Jantzen on the caudron, and doubted cauldrons were separately made in the East.
  16. ^ But "Herdotus doubted that Arimaspeans were monocular".The Scythian word "arimasp" signifies "rich in horses rather than one-eyed [83]
  17. ^ To distinguish from the (screaming) harpies, referred as "dogs of Zeus" (by Apollonius of Rhodes, II.289).[87]
  18. ^ Mayor's reasoning being that Aeschylus elsewhere refers to eagles as "winged dogs of Zeus".[81] However this seems contradictory to Apollonius being able to refer to winged harpies as "Zeus' dogs",[87] as noted previously.
  19. ^ The word for "eared" in the text is aurita in declined form. auritus. Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short. A Latin Dictionary on Perseus Project. gives the definition: "Furnished with ears (acc. to auris, l.), having long or large ears".
  20. ^ Apollonius of Tyana's writings, as recorded in his biography by Flavius Philostratus.
  21. ^ Apollonius also compares the griffins to gold-gathering ants, though he places the ants not in India but in Africa (Aethiopia).[95]
  22. ^ κρητῆρος Ἀργολικοῦ.
  23. ^ Mayor seems to suggest it may have been the "carved ivory horn" obtained as a gift from Harun al-Rashid, who also gave Charlemagne the live elephant Abul-Abbas.[136] However, the ivory horn given by the caliph seems more likely to be Charlemagne's olifant, perhaps the one held in Aachen.
  24. ^ Used since c. 1481 Polish noble families.
  25. ^ The design of the griffin is a mock-up of Minoan art, but the inscription language is archaicized Greek, not Minoan (Linear A and Cretan hieroglyphs).

References

Citations
  1. ^ Félix Gaffiot (1934). Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français. Paris: Hachette.
  2. ^ Ronald Edward Latham; David Robert Howlett; Richard Ashdowne (1975–2013). Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources. London: British Academy.
  3. ^ a b c d Friar, Stephen (1987). A New Dictionary of Heraldry. London: Alphabooks/A & C Black. p. 173. ISBN 978-0-906670-44-6.
  4. ^ Bement, Clarence S. (1921). Descriptive Catalogue of Greek Coins selected from the cabinet. Philadelphia: American Numismatic Society. p. 43 and Plate X, 144. 144 AR [silver] Phoenician Tetradrachm; 14.94 gr.; 27 mm. Obv. Griffin seated l. on a fish, with rounded, feathered wing; around, magistrate's name Καλλιδαμασ; around, circle of dots. Rev. → Αβδηριτων on border of an incuse square; within, smaller linear square in four compartments.
  5. ^ a b Isidore of Seville (2005). Isidore of Seville's Etymologies: Complete English Translation. Vol. 2. Translated by Throop, Priscilla. MedievalMS. xii.2.17. ISBN 9781411665262.
  6. ^ William H. C. Propp, Exodus 19–40, volume 2A of The Anchor Bible, New York: Doubleday, 2006, ISBN 0-385-24693-5, p. 386; citing Julius Wellhausen, Prolegomena to the History of Israel, Edinburgh: Black, 1885, p. 304.
  7. ^ Also see Robert S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, volume 1, Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2010 ISBN 978-90-04-17420-7, p. 289, entry for γρυπος, "From the archaeological perspective, origin in Asia Minor (and the Near East: Elam) is very probable."
  8. ^ a b Taheri (2013).
  9. ^ Asadi, Arezoo; Darvishi, Farangis (Winter 2020). "The Reflection of Mythological Concepts in Achaemenid Jewelry Art". Journal of Iranian Studies. 18 (36). Faculty of Literature and Humanities Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman: 21–41.
  10. ^ Litvinskij, Boris A. [in Russian]; Pičikian, Igor R. (1995), Invernizzi, Antonio (ed.), "An Achaemenian griffin handle from the Temple of the Oxus: the makhaira in Northern Bactria", In the Land of the Gryphons: Papers on Central Asian Archaeology in Antiquity, Le lettere, p. 123, ISBN 9788871662480
  11. ^ a b Litvinskij, Boris A. [in Russian] (2002). "Copper cauldrons from Gilgit and Central Asia: more about Saka and Dards and related problems". East and West. 52 (1–4): 141.
  12. ^ a b c d e Schmidt, Hanns-Peter (2003). "Simorg". Encyclopedia Iranica. Costa Mesa: Mazda Pub.
  13. ^ Harper, P. O. (1961), "The Sēnmurw", Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Series 2, 20 (3): 95–101, doi:10.2307/3257932, JSTOR 3257932 apud Schmidt.[12]
  14. ^ Marr, N. Ya. (1918), "Ossetica-Japhetica", Izvestiya Rossiskoi Akademii Nauk Известия Российской академии наук: 2087, n. 2 apud Schmidt.[12]
  15. ^ Kiperwasser, Reuven; Shapira, Dan D. Y. (2012), Secunda, Shai; Fine, Steven (eds.), "Irano-Talmudica II: Leviathan, Behemoth and the 'Domestication' of Iranian Mythological Creatures in Eschatological Narratives of the Babylonian Talmud", Shoshannat Yaakov: Jewish and Iranian studies in honor of Yaakov Elman, Brill, p. 209 and n22, ISBN 9789004235458
  16. ^ Henning, W. B. (1947), "Two Manichæan Magical Texts with an Excursus on the Parthian Ending -ēndēh", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 12 (1): 41, 42, doi:10.1017/S0041977X0007988X, JSTOR 608983, S2CID 194111905; Reprinted in Duchesne-Guillemin, Jacques ed. (1977) "B. Henning selected papers", Acta Iranica 10, pp. 274–275
  17. ^ a b c Griffith, F. Ll; Newberry, Percy Edward (1895). El Bersheh. Vol. 2. Appended by George Willoughby Fraser. Sold at the Offices of the Egypt Exploration Fund. pp. 34–35 and Pl. XVI, tomb no. 5. Another monster is seen just above; a lion with the head of a hawk, the wings of an eagle, and the horns and feathers of a god... called tesh-tesh, "the tearer-in-pieces"
  18. ^ Riefstahl (1956), p. 2 citing Leibovitch.
  19. ^ Leibovitch (1942), pp. 186–187 and Fig. 5: "tštš.. signifie déchirer, triturer, couper, metter en pièces [tštš.. denotes tearing, grind up, chopping, ripping to pieces]". Citing Griffith & Newberry (1895) El-Bersheh 2: Pl. XVI, tomb no. 5.[17]
  20. ^ a b David, Arlette (2016), "3. Hybridism as a Visual Mark of Divinity: The Case of Akhenaten", in David, Arlette; Milstein, Rachel; Ornan, Tallay (eds.), Picturing Royal Charisma: Kings and Rulers in the Near East from 3000 BCE to 1700 CE, Archaeopress Publishing Limited, pp. 52–53 and Table 3.1, ISBN 9781803271613
  21. ^ David glosses tštš as "Crusher",[20] which is consistent with one of Leibovitch's several glosses.<!!-- But David note 8 indicates the source to be Newberry 1893b (Beni Hasan II), Pl. 16, which probably should by Griffith & Newberry (El-Bersheh II)0, Pl. 16-->
  22. ^ Leibovitch (1942), pp. 186–187.
  23. ^ David,[20] citing Newberry (1893a, 1893b recte [1893], [1894]). Beni Hasan.
  24. ^ Leibovitch (1942), p. 187.
  25. ^ Leibovitch (1942), pp. 186.
  26. ^ Prakash, Tara (2022). Ancient Egyptian Prisoner Statues: Fragments of the Late Old Kingdom. Lockwood Press. pp. 50–51. ISBN 9780892362233.
  27. ^ The epithet "the Crusher" (or "Trampler") is also given by Riefstahl (1956), p. 2 citing Leibovitch, but the words do not actually occur as names/epithets in Leibovitch's reading of the inscription: "Spdw le seigneur des pays montagne, qui écrase (en les piétinant)　Sopdu the lord of the mountain countries, who crushes (trampling them)]". The inscription is from Sahure (pharaoh of Fifth Dynasty of Egypt).[25] A relief represents Sahure as an enemy-trampling griffin in the reliefs work found in his pyramid complex.[26]
  28. ^ Benson (1960), p. 60 et passim.
  29. ^ Third Group GG, p. 56 apud Benson (1960), pp. 59–60.
  30. ^ a b c d e Goldman (1960), p. 321.
  31. ^ Ghirshman (1964c), p. 434.
  32. ^ Jantzen (1955), pp. 20, 69–70.
  33. ^ Goldman (1960), p. 322.
  34. ^ a b c d Ghirshman (1964c), p. 108.
  35. ^ a b Chahin, Mack (2001) [1987]. The Kingdom of Armenia. Curzon. p. 151. ISBN 9780700714520.
  36. ^ Papalexandrou (2021), Fig. 3.6
  37. ^ Goldman (1960), pp. 320–321.
  38. ^ Goldman (1960), p. 322 and note 22.
  39. ^ The positioning is between the brows, yet looks to be at the top of the head, as seen on the example Goldman (1960), p. 324 provides: Plate 90, fig. 1 (adapted from GG 75).
  40. ^ Goldman (1960), p. 321: "the top-knob on the cauldron griffin is a straight-forward carryover from its oriental counterparts".
  41. ^ a b c Benson (1960), p. 63.
  42. ^ Benson (1960), p. 62 and Fig. 5, griffin protome of stone, from Nimrud.
  43. ^ Examples of GG no. 14,[30]
  44. ^ Goldman (1960), p. 321: "wart-like protuberances between the eyes..natural property of the lion". An example from the east is given as Fig. 10: "Lion-griffin. Middle Assyrian (after Corpus 596)".
  45. ^ Benson (1960), p. 64.
  46. ^ a b Delaporte, Louis-Joseph (1920). Catalogue des cylindres, cachets et pierres gravées de style oriental : Musée du Louvre. Paris: Hachette. p. 49. Items S. 366 (Pl. 44, fig. 10); S. 367 (Pl. 44, fig. 11); S. 368 (Pl. 45, fig. 2) BnF copy. The "S" indicates Susa expedition, under the direction of J. de Morgan (1897–1912).
  47. ^ a b c d Frankfort (1936–1937), p. 106.
  48. ^ Image of Persian griffin. granger.com (picture). The Granger Collection. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  49. ^ a b c Frankfort (1936–1937), p. 107.
  50. ^ a b c Fishbane, Michael A. (2005). Biblical Myth and Rabbinic Mythmaking. Oxford University Press. pp. 45–46. ISBN 9780199284207.
  51. ^ "Worshiper pouring libation before goddess standing on lion-griffin that draws chariot driven by weather god". Morgan Library & Museum. 6 July 2017. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  52. ^ Fishbane's example from early 3rd millennium BC is a four-wheeled chariot, citing Pritchard.[50] There is another four-wheeled chariot which generally match the description, held by the Morgan Library (shelfmark Morgan Seal 220), dated to between 2340 and 2150 BC.[51]
  53. ^ Frankfort's example is a two-wheeled chariot in the seal-impression image shown on Fig. 4.[49]
  54. ^ Goldman (1960), p. 324 and pl. 90, fig. 15}}{{Refn|Frankfort classed it as a "winged, tailed, and taloned dragon which spat fire".
  55. ^ a b Álvarez-Mon (2011), p. 320.
  56. ^ Goldman (1960), p. 324 and Pl. 90, Fig. 12 "Luristan lion head" (which has the beak-like feature)
  57. ^ Goldman (1960), p. 324.
  58. ^ Cf. Frankfort (1936–1937), p. 110: "The immediate source of non-Mesopotamian motives in Assyrian art is the kingdom of Mitan"; "The griffin is as common in Mitannian (Figs. 21, 22) as in Assyrian art, and the question arises whether it was peculiar to the ephemereal kingdom, or reached it from one of the sources".
  59. ^ Neva, Elena (12 March 2008). . Artwis. Archived from the original on 25 July 2014; who cites Pugachenkova, G. (1959). "Grifon v drevnem iskusstve central'noi Azii" Грифон в древнем искусстве центральной Азии [Griffin in the ancient art of Central Asia]. Sovetskya Arheologia. 2: 70, 83.
  60. ^ Fox, R.L. (1973). Alexander the Great. p. 31, & notes on p. 506.
  61. ^ "Dartmouth College expedition to Greece" (image). May 2009.
  62. ^ Benson (1960), p. 63 and Pl. 2, #3 (monochrome photograph)
  63. ^ Ghirshman (1958) BibO 15 p. 259, apud Goldman (1960), p. 319, note 3
  64. ^ "Griffin". Buffaloah.com. Illustrated Dictionary of Egyptian Mythology. Retrieved 2 January 2012.
  65. ^ a b Quibell, James Edward; Green, Frederick Wastie (1902). Hierakonpolis ...: Plates of discoveries, 1898-99, with Description of the site in detail. Vol. Part II. B. Quaritch. p. 41 and Pl. XXVIII.
  66. ^ Leibovitch (1942), pp. 184–185 and Fig 3 (detail of griffin-like beast), citing Quibell & Green (1902)[65]
  67. ^ Frankfort (1936–1937), p. 110, also citing Quibell & Green (1902)[65]
  68. ^ Leibovitch (1942), pp. 184–185.
  69. ^ Patch, Diana (2012). Dawn of Egyptian Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 139–140. ISBN 978-0300179521. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
  70. ^ Teissier, Beatrice (1996). Egyptian Iconography on Syro-Palestinian Cylinder Seals of the Middle Bronze Age. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. pp. 88–90. ISBN 978-3525538920. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
  71. ^ Aruz, Joan; Benzel, Kim; Evans, Jean M. (2008). Beyond Babylon: Art, trade, and diplomacy in the second millennium B.C. Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press. p. 137. ISBN 978-1588392954. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
  72. ^ Teissier, Beatrice (1996). Egyptian Iconography on Syro-Palestinian Cylinder Seals of the Middle Bronze Age. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. pp. 5–6. ISBN 978-3525538920. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
  73. ^ Frankfort (1936–1937), p. 113.
  74. ^ a b Benson (1960), p. 58.
  75. ^ Goldman (1960), p. 326: "the griffin-headed bird appears in the orientalizing phase of seventh century B.C. Greek art".
  76. ^ Jantzen (1955).
  77. ^ Goldman (1960), pp. 319–320.
  78. ^ Maxwell-Hyslop (1956), p. 156 viewed later examples to have been western, copied from eastern "originals" (cited by Goldman (1960), pp. 319–320) , as shall be iterated below.
  79. ^ Jantzen (1951). "Die Bedeutung der Greifenprotomen aus dem Heraion von Samos". Festschrift für Hans Jantzen; also Jantzen (1955) GG. Cited by Goldman (1960), p. 319
  80. ^ Benson (1960), p. 58, and note 2, naming/citing Maxwell-Hyslop (1956), pp. 150ff. and Pierre Amandry (1958) "Objets orientaux..", pp. 73ff.
  81. ^ a b c d e Mayor & Heaney (1993), p. 42.
  82. ^ Phillips (1955), pp. 161–163.
  83. ^ a b Mayor & Heaney (1993), n9.
  84. ^ Herodotus (1909). The History of Herodotus. Vol. 2. Translated by Rawlinson, George. New York: Tandy-Thomas. III.16, IV.13 (pp. 146, 192).
  85. ^ Herodotus III.116, IV.13.[84]
  86. ^ Phillips (1955), p. 161.
  87. ^ a b c Aeschylus (1870). Watson, John Selby (ed.). Aischulou Promētheus desmōtēs. The Prometheus vinctus, from the text of Dindorf. vv. 802–806, and endnotes, pp. 115–116.
  88. ^ Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound vv. 805–806, and notes by Watson.[87]
  89. ^ a b Phillips (1955), p. 163.
  90. ^ Mayor & Heaney (1993), n9, citing Bolton (1962), p. 81 and Costello (1979), p. 75.
  91. ^ Mayor & Heaney (1993), p. 42 and n11, citing Pliny the Elder 10.70.136; 7.2.10
  92. ^ a b Pliny the Elder (1855), The Natural History of Pliny, translated by John Bostock; Henry Thomas Riley, H. G. Bohn, VII.2 (p. 123); X.70 (p.539), ISBN 9780598910769
  93. ^ Mayor & Heaney (1993), pp. 40, 42 : "Pliny wrote: 'Arimaspeans... are always fighting for gold with the griffins, winged animals whose appearance is well known. The griffins toss up gold when they make their burrows.'" and n11, citing 11. Pliny the Elder 10.70.136; 7.2.10
  94. ^ The Life of Apollonius of Tyana. Translated by F. C. Conybeare. W. Heinemann. 1912. volume I, book III. Chapter XLVIII, p. 333.

    As to the gold which the griffins dig up, there are rocks which are spotted with drops of gold as with sparks, which this creature can quarry because of the strength of its beak. "For these animals do exist in India" he said, "and are held in veneration as being sacred to the Sun ; and the Indian artists, when they represent the Sun, yoke four of them abreast to draw the images ; and in size and strength they resemble lions, but having this advantage over them that they have wings, they will attack them, and they get the better of elephants and of dragons. But they have no great power of flying, not more than have birds of short flight; for they are not winged as is proper with birds, but the palms of their feet are webbed with red membranes, such that they are able to revolve them, and make a flight and fight in the air; and the tiger alone is beyond their powers of attack, because in swiftness it rivals the winds".
  95. ^ Philostratus & Conybeare tr. (1912), vol. II, book VI.I., p. 5

    And the griffins of the Indians and the ants of the Ethiopians, though they are dissimilar in form, yet, from what we hear, play similar parts; for in each country they are, according to the tales of poets, the guardians of gold, and devoted to the gold reefs of the two countries.
  96. ^ a b Pomponius Mela (1998). Romer, Frank E. (ed.). Pomponius Mela's Description of the World. University of Michigan Press. Book 2.1, p. 68. ISBN 0472084526.
  97. ^ Claudius Aelianus (1832), Scanlan, James J. (tr.) (ed.), Aeliani de natura animalium libri xvii, vol. 1, Impensis Friderici Frommanni, pp. 53–54
  98. ^ Aelian De natura animaliumIV , 27:"Gryphem, Indicum animal, audio similiter quadrupedem, ut leonem,.."[97] Quoted in English translation by Mayor (2011), p. 33 and excerpted with somewhat different phrasing in Mayor & Heaney (1993), pp. 44–45.
  99. ^ Mayor & Heaney (1993), n14: "Aelian is the last literary text dealing with the griffin considered here; after his account,.. no new information about the gryps was added, except for 'agate eggs'"
  100. ^ Cf. Riefstahl (1956), p. 3
  101. ^ a b Künzl, Ernst [in German] (2016), "13 Life on Earth and Death from Heaven: The Golden Pectoral of the Scythian King from the Tolstaya Mogila (Ukraine)", in Bintliff, John; Rutter, N. K. (eds.), Archaeology of Greece and Rome: Image, Text and Context. Studies In Honour of Anthony Snodgrass, Edinburgh University Press, pp. 331–332, ISBN 9781474417105
  102. ^ a b Hirst, G. M. (1902). The Cults of Olbia. Columbia University. pp. 259–260.
  103. ^ Franks (2009), p. 469.
  104. ^ Franks (2009), p. 469, n56, Fig. 5
  105. ^ Franks (2009), p. 469, n56
  106. ^ Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum 202, red-figure cup/kylix, ca. 400–300 BC.[104] London, British Museum E 543. red-figure oinochoe.[105]
  107. ^ "Red-figure hydria with Apollo riding a griffin, ca. 380–360 B.C. (Object number: 2003-92)". Princeton University Art Museum. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  108. ^ Gualandri, Isabella (2020). "8. Sidonius' Intersexuality". In Kelly, Gavin (ed.). Edinburgh Companion to Sidonius Apollinaris. Edinburgh University Press. p. 296. ISBN 9781474461702.
  109. ^ Claudian, VI Honorii 30–31: at si Phoebus adest et frenis grypha iugalem / Riphaeo tripodas repetens detorsit ab axe.[108]
  110. ^ Riefstahl (1956), p. 3.
  111. ^ Westgate, Ruth (2011). "14. Party animals: the imagery of status, power and masculinity in Greek mosaics". In Lambert, S. D. (ed.). Sociable Man: Essays on Ancient Greek Social Behaviour in Honour of Nick Fisher. Classical Press of Wales. p. 298. ISBN 9781910589212.
  112. ^ Westgate (2011), p. 298[111] citing Delplace (1980), pp. 372–376.
  113. ^ a b Herodotus & Rawlinson tr. (1909), {{URL|1=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_History_of_Herodotus/N084AQAAMAAJ?bsq=Argive&gbpv=1&pg=PA284 |2=IV.152 (p. 284)
  114. ^ a b Herodotus (1921). Godley, A. D. (ed., tr.) (ed.). The History of Herodotus. Vol. 2. W. Heinemann. IV.152 (2: 355). ISBN 9780674991309.
  115. ^ Towne, Elana B. (1994). "13. Griffin protome". In J. Paul Getty Museum; Cleveland Museum of Art (eds.). A Passion for Antiquities: Ancient Art from the Collection of Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman. J. Paul Getty Museum. pp. 50–51. ISBN 9780892362233.
  116. ^ Mayor & Heaney (1993), n4 citing Nigg (1982), p. 51
  117. ^ Albertus Magnus (1987), Scanlan, James J. (tr.) (ed.), Man and the Beasts (De Animalibus, Books 22-26), Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, p. 290, ISBN 9780866980326
  118. ^ Nigg (1999), p. 144.
  119. ^ a b Nigg (1999), p. 121.
  120. ^ McCulloch (1962), p. 122.
  121. ^ Isidore of Seville (1912), Brehaut, Ernest (tr.) (ed.), An Encyclopedist of the Dark Ages: Isidore of Seville, Columbia Studies in the Social Sciences, 48, New York: Columbia University Press, p. 225. "Griffin"@eaudrey.com
  122. ^ Servius's commentary on Virgil's eighth Eclogue (1. 27), accord. to McCulloch (1962), p. 122
  123. ^ South (1987), p. 89 citing Costello (1979), pp. 73–76
  124. ^ a b Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth (1886). The Writings of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, with Bibliographical and Critical Notes. Vol. 10. Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press. pp. 338, 351–352.
  125. ^ a b Millington (1858), p. 277.
  126. ^ a b c d Bedingfeld, Henry; Gwynn-Jones, Peter (1993). Heraldry. Wigston: Magna Books. pp. 80–81. ISBN 1-85422-433-6. Goblets in the shape of gryphon's claws or eggs were highly prized in the courts of medieval Europe, and were usually made from antelope horns and ostrich eggs.
  127. ^ Mayor (2022), pp. 43–48.
  128. ^ Mayor (2022), pp. 43–44.
  129. ^ a b c Mayor (2022), p. 44.
  130. ^ a b c Mayor (2022), p. 47.
  131. ^ Millington (1858), pp. 278–279.
  132. ^ London, Hugh Stanford (1956). Royal Beasts. p. 17 n5 apud Edwards (2005), p. 225 n10
  133. ^ Gerald Leigh, in his work on heraldry (1563), surmised from his claw that the original griffin must have been as "bigge as two lyons".[129] Lady Mary Wortley Montague (1716) observed a gilded "prodigious claw" referred to as a griffin's claw while touring the Danube.[129]
  134. ^ Mayor (2022), pp. 42–43, 47–48.
  135. ^ a b Millington (1858), p. 278.
  136. ^ a b Mayor (2022), pp. 44–45.
  137. ^ Mayor (2022), p. 46.
  138. ^ White, T. H. (1992) [1954]. The Book of Beasts: Being a Translation From a Latin Bestiary of the Twelfth Century. Stroud: Alan Sutton. pp. 22–24. ISBN 978-0-7509-0206-9.
  139. ^ McClanan, A (2019). "Illustrious Monsters: Representations of Griffins on Byzantine Textiles". Animals in Text and Textile: Storytelling in the Medieval World, Riggisberger Berichte. 23: 133–45.
  140. ^ Hand, Wayland D. (2021). Magical Medicine: The Folkloric Component of Medicine in the Folk Belief, Custom, and Ritual of the Peoples of Europe and America. University of California Press. p. 298. ISBN 9780520306783.
  141. ^ Lewis, Thomas P. (2021). "Singing Bone". The Pro/Am Book of Music and Mythology. Pro/Am Music Resources. pp. 721–723. ISBN 9780912483511.
  142. ^ Brewster, Paul G. (1953). The Two Sisters. FF Communications, 147. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica. p. 55.
  143. ^ Endnotes, volume 2, p. 869, to : Zipes, Jack; Russo, Joseph, eds. (2009), "79. The King of Naples—Lu Re di Napuli", The Collected Sicilian Folk and Fairy Tales of Giuseppe Pitrè, vol. 1&2, Routledge, pp. 348–349, ISBN 9781135861377
  144. ^ a b Oliver, Stefan (1997). Introduction to Heraldry. Quantum Books. pp. 44, 69. ISBN 1861601433.; Reprint: David & Charles 2002.
  145. ^ von Volborth, Carl-Alexander (1981). Heraldry: Customs, Rules and Styles. Poole: New Orchard Editions. pp. 44–45. ISBN 978-1-85079-037-2.
  146. ^ a b c Fox-Davies, Arthur (1909). A Complete Guide to Heraldry. London: T.C. and E.C. Jack. pp. 222–224.
  147. ^ Male griffin depicted in Debrett's Peerage, 1968, p. 222, sinister supporter of Earl of Carrick (Ireland)
  148. ^ J[ames] R[obinson] Planché (1852). "Badges". The Pursuivant of Arms, or Heraldry Founded upon Facts. London: W. N. Wright [Bookseller to the Queen, 60, Pall Mall]. p. 183..
  149. ^ Arthur Fox-Davies, A Complete Guide to Heraldry, T.C. and E.C. Jack, London, 1909, pp. 231–232.
  150. ^ Rose, Carol (2001). Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: an Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. p. 279. ISBN 0393322114. OCLC 48798119.
  151. ^ Vinycomb, John (1906). Fictitious and Symbolic Creatures in Art: With Special Reference to Their Use In British Heraldry. London: Chapman and Hall. p. 162.
  152. ^ . Quantara. Archived from the original on 26 March 2012. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
  153. ^ Hoffman, 318
  154. ^ , City of London Corporation, hosted by webarchive
  155. ^ The Essential Rumi, translated from Persian by Coleman Barks, p 257
  156. ^ The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, Chapter XXIX, Macmillan and Co. edition, 1900.
  157. ^ Edwards (2005), p. 100.
  158. ^ Mayor, Adrienne (November–December 1994). "Guardians of The Gold". Archaeology Magazine. 47 (6): 53–59. JSTOR 41766590.; Mayor (2011), pp. xvii, xxv, 49.
  159. ^ BBC Four television program Dinosaurs, Myths and Monsters, 10 and 13 December 2011
  160. ^ Mayor (1994), p. 58; Mayor (2011), pp. 49, 71
  161. ^ Mark Witton, Why Protoceratops Almost Certainly Wasn't The Inspiration For Griffin Legend
  162. ^ Philadelphia Museum of Art – Giving : Giving to the Museum : Specialty License Plates. Philamuseum.org. Retrieved on 2 January 2012.
  163. ^ Glassteelandstone.com 11 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Philadelphia Museum of Art: Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, Glass Steel and Stone
  164. ^ "Ο Γρύπας, το μυθικό τέρας γίνεται το σύμβολο της πόλης του Ηρακλείου...". Cretalive News. 22 March 2021.
  165. ^ Trinity.ox.ac.uk. Trinity.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved on 2 January 2012.
  166. ^ VU university Amsterdam. About the griffin. Retrieved on 5 November 2013.
  167. ^ "The New (Olde) Reed Almanac (continued): Griffin". Reed College.
  168. ^ Sarah Lawrence Gryphons. Gogryphons.com. Retrieved on 23 October 2013.
  169. ^ Traditions. Big Ten. Purdue.edu. Retrieved on 2 January 2012.
  170. ^ Pantless Man-Bird To Lead William and Mary Into Battle. Deadspin.com (7 April 2010). Retrieved on 2 January 2012.
  171. ^ W&M welcomes newest member of the Tribe. Wm.edu (8 April 2010). Retrieved on 2 January 2012.
  172. ^ Family Guy - "What's your name?", retrieved 2 January 2023
  173. ^ ...but my parents were unwilling to secure the necessary eagle eggs and lion semen., retrieved 2 January 2023
  174. ^ GA-ASI Introduces Griffin Eye Manned ISR System 11 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. GA-ASI.com (20 July 2010). Retrieved on 2 January 2012.
Bibliography
  • Álvarez-Mon, Javier (2011). Álvarez-Mon, Javier; Garrison, Mark B. (eds.). The Golden Griffin from Arjan. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, imprint of Penn State University Press. pp. 299–373. ISBN 9781575066127. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  • Benson, J. L. (1960). "Unpublished Griffin Protomes in American Collections". Antike Kunst. 3 (2): 58–70. JSTOR 41318521.
  • Bolton, J. D. P. (1962). Aristeas of Proconnesus. Clarendon Press.
  • Costello, Peter (1979). The Magic Zoo. New York: Sphere Books. ISBN 9780722125533.
  • Delplace, Christiane (1980). Le griffon de l'archaïsme a l'époque impériale: Étude iconographique et essai d'interpretation symbolique (in French). Brussels: Institut historique belge de Rome.
  • Edwards, Karen L. (2005). Milton and the Natural World: Science and Poetry in Paradise Lost. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521017480.
  • Frankfort, Henri (1936–1937), "Notes on the Cretan Griffin", The Annual of the British School at Athens, 37: 106–122, doi:10.1017/S0068245400018025, JSTOR 30096666, S2CID 162323614
  • Franks, Hallie Malcolm (2009), "Hunting the Eschata: An Imagined Persian Empire on the Lekythos of Xenophantos" (PDF), Hesperia, 78 (4): 455–480, doi:10.2972/hesp.78.4.455, S2CID 191569662
  • Ghirshman, Roman (1964c). The Arts of Ancient Iran: From Its Origins to the Time of Alexander the Great. Golden Press.
  • Goldman, Bernard (October 1960). "The Development of the Lion-Griffin". American Journal of Archaeology. 64 (4): 319–328. doi:10.2307/501330. JSTOR 501330.
  • Jantzen, Ulf [in German] (1955). Griechische Greifenkessel. Berlin.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link), abbreviated GG.
  • Leibovitch, J. (1942). "Quelques éléments de la décoration égyptienne sous le Nouvel Empire : Le Griffon". Bulletin de l'institut d'Égypte (in French). 25: 183–203.
  • Maxwell-Hyslop, K. R. (Autumn 1956). "Urartian Bronzes in Etruscan Tombs". Iraq. 18 (2): 150–167. doi:10.2307/4199609. JSTOR 419960. S2CID 163723570.
  • Mayor, Adrienne (2011) [2000]. The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691150130.
  • Mayor, Adrienne; Heaney, Michael (1993). "Griffins and Arimaspeans". Folklore. 104 (1–2): 40–66. doi:10.1080/0015587X.1993.9715853. JSTOR 1260795.
  • Mayor, Adrienne (2022). Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691211183.
  • McCulloch, Florence (1962) [1960]. Mediaeval Latin and French Bestiaries. North Carolina Studies in Romance Languages and Literatures 33 (revised ed.). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. pp. 122–123. ISBN 9780807890332. [ Reprint], C. N. Potter, 1976
  • Millington, Ellen J. (1858). Heraldry in History, Poetry, and Romance. Chapman and Hall.
  • Nigg, Joe (1982). The Book of Gryphons: A History of the Most Majestic of All Mythical Creatures. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Applewood Books. ISBN 978-0918222374.
  • —— (1999). The Book of Fabulous Beasts: A Treasury of Writings from Ancient Times to the Present. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195095616. Isidore's entries contain traditional folkloric material, but without Christian allegory
  • Papalexandrou, Nassos (2021). Bronze Monsters and the Cultures of Wonder: Griffin Cauldrons in the Preclassical Mediterranean. University of Texas Press. ISBN 9781477323632.
  • Phillips, E. D. (1955). "The Legend of Aristeas: Fact and Fancy in Early Greek Notions of East Russia, Siberia, and Inner Asia". Artibus Asiae. 18 (2): 161–177. doi:10.2307/3248792. JSTOR 3248792.
  • Riefstahl, Elizabeth (Spring 1956). "Nemesis and the Wheel of Fate". Brooklyn Museum Bulletin. 17 (3): 1–7. JSTOR 26458409.
  • South, Malcolm (1987). Mythical and Fabulous Creatures: A Source Book and Research. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9780313243387.
  • Taheri, Sadreddin (2013). "Gopat and Shirdal in the Ancient Middle East" (PDF). Honar-Ha-Ye-Ziba: Honar-Ha-Ye-Tajassomi نشریه هنرهای زیبا- هنرهای تجسمی (in Persian). 17 (4): 13–22. doi:10.22059/jfava.2013.30063.

Further reading

  • Wild, F., Gryps-Greif-Gryphon (Griffon). Eine sprach-, kultur- und stoffgeschichtliche Studie (Wien, 1963) (Oesterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philologisch-historische Klasse, Sitzungberichte, 241).
  • Bisi, Anna Maria, Il grifone: Storia di un motivo iconografico nell'antico Oriente mediterraneo (Rome: Università) 1965.

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Griffins.
  • The Gryphon Pages, a repository of griffin lore and information
  • The Medieval Bestiary: Griffin
  • Four Footed Winged Raptors Gryphons of Greece, Europe and the Near East, source texts in Greek, Hebrew, and Old English, with new English translations.
  • Haupt, Ryan (25 November 2014). "Skeptoid #442: Griffins". Skeptoid.

April 11, 2024
griffin, gryphon, redirects, here, other, uses, disambiguation, griffon, disambiguation, gryphon, disambiguation, griffin, griffon, gryphon, ancient, greek, γρύψ, romanized, grýps, classical, latin, grȳps, grȳpus, late, medieval, latin, gryphes, grypho, french. Gryphon redirects here For other uses see Griffin disambiguation Griffon disambiguation and Gryphon disambiguation The griffin griffon or gryphon Ancient Greek gryps romanized gryps Classical Latin grȳps or grȳpus 1 Late and Medieval Latin 2 gryphes grypho etc Old French griffon is a legendary creature with the body tail and back legs of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle with its talons on the front legs Sassanid bowl with sitting griffin gilted silver from Iran Restored griffin fresco In the Throne Room Palace of Knossos Crete original from Bronze Age Contents 1 Overview 2 Nomenclature 2 1 Etymology 2 2 Persian names 2 3 Egyptian names 3 Form 3 1 Cauldron figurines 3 1 1 Tendrils 3 1 2 Top knob 3 1 3 Warts 4 Art in antiquity 4 1 Mesopotamia 4 1 1 Iran 4 2 Egypt 4 3 Near East elsewhere 4 4 Greece 4 5 Central Asia 5 Ancient parallels 6 Classical accounts 6 1 Herodotus etc 6 2 Gryphons of India and gold digging ants 6 3 Pliny and later 6 4 Divine creature 7 Medieval accounts 7 1 Christian symbolism 7 2 Claw egg feather 7 3 Medieval iconography 8 Folklore 9 In heraldry 9 1 Houses and cities using the device 10 Variants 10 1 Hippogriff 10 2 Heraldic subtypes 10 2 1 Wingless griffin 10 2 2 Sea griffin 10 2 3 Opinicus 11 In architecture 12 In fiction 13 Theories of origin 13 1 Possible influence by dinosaurs 14 Modern culture 14 1 Popular fiction 14 2 Modern art 15 Logos mascots 15 1 School emblems and mascots 15 2 Police and military 15 3 Professional sports 15 4 Amusement parks 15 5 Iran Air Logo 16 In film and television 17 Eponymy 17 1 Fauna names 18 Gallery 19 See also 20 Explanatory notes 21 References 22 Further reading 23 External linksOverviewBecause the lion was traditionally considered the king of the beasts and the eagle the king of the birds by the Middle Ages the griffin was thought to be an especially powerful and majestic creature Since classical antiquity griffins were known for guarding treasures and priceless possessions 3 In Greek and Roman texts griffins and Arimaspians were associated with gold deposits of Central Asia The earliest classical writings derive from Aristeas 7th cent BC preserved by Herodotus and Aeschylus mid 5th century BC but the physical descriptions are not very explicit Thus even though they are sharp beaked their being likened to unbarking hounds of Zeus has led to the speculation they were seen as wingless Pliny the Elder 1st century was the first to explicitly state that griffins were winged and long eared But Apollonius of Tyana wrote that griffins did not have true bird wings but only membranous webbed feet that only gave them capability of short distanced flight Writers after Aelian 3rd century AD did not add new material to griffin lore except for the later lore that griffins deposited agate stone among the eggs in their nest Pliny placed the griffins in AEthiopia and Ctesias 5th century BC in greater India Scholars have observed that legends about the gold digging ants of India may have contaminated griffin lore In the Christian era Isidore of Seville 7th century AD wrote that griffins were a great enemy of horses This notion may have readily developed from the tradition that horseback riding Arimaspians raided the griffin gold NomenclatureEtymology nbsp Griffin depicted on obverse side of coin Silver tetradrachm Abdera c 450 430BC 4 a The derivation of this word remains uncertain It could be related to the Greek word grypos grypos meaning curved or hooked Greek gryf gryph from gryf hook nosed is suggested 5 It could also have been an Anatolian loan word derived from a Semitic language compare the Hebrew word for cherub כרוב keruv 6 7 Persian names nbsp Shirdal on the silver cup Iranian Art In the modern Persian language the griffin has come to be called shirdal Persian شیردال meaning lion eagle However the practice of referring to ancient Iranian griffin objects or monuments as shirdal 8 is not followed by other current archaeological scholarship e g here 9 Possible Old or Middle Iranian names for the creature have been discussed Middle Persian Senmurw in Sasanian culture was a fabulous composite creature and Russian archaeologist Boris A Litvinskij ru argued for the possibility that the application of this term may extend to the griffin 10 11 The term Senmurw is recognized as the etymological ancestor of simurgh which is generally regarded as a mythological bird rather than a composite in later medieval Persian literature 12 b though some argue that this bird may have originated from the Mesopotamian lion griffin 13 There is also the Armenian term Paskuc Armenian պասկուչ that had been used to translate Greek gryp griffin in the Septuagint 14 which H P Schmidt characterized as the counterpart of the simurgh 12 However the cognate term Baskuc glossed as griffin also occurs in Middle Persian attested in the Zoroastrian cosmological text Bundahishn XXIV supposedly distinguishable from Senmurw which also appears in the same text 15 Middle Persian Paskuc is also attested in Manichaean magical texts Manichaean Middle Persian pskwc and this must have meant a griffin or a monster like a griffin according to W B Henning 16 Deir El Bersha Egyptian names The griffin was given names which were descriptive epithets such as tsts c or tesh tesh 17 meaning Tearer in pieces 18 17 inscribed on a griffin image found in a tomb at Deir El Bersha 19 21 and sfr srf fiery one attested at Beni Hasan 22 23 The descriptive epithet Tearer is not uniquely applied to the griffin beast and tsts Tes tes has also been used to denote the god Osiris elsewhere 24 27 FormSee also Medieval iconography and Variants nbsp Bronze figure of a griffin Roman period AD 50 270 Most statuary representations of griffins depict them with bird like forelegs and talons although in some older illustrations griffins have a lion s forelegs see bronze figure right they generally have a lion s hindquarters Its eagle s head is conventionally given prominent ears these are sometimes described as the lion s ears but are often elongated more like a horse s and are sometimes feathered Cauldron figurines The griffin of Greece as depicted in cast d bronze cauldron protomes cf below has a squat face with short beaks e that are open agape as if screaming with the tongue showing 30 There is also a top knob on its head or between the brows 30 Tendrils nbsp Griffins and lions on cauldron Etruscan 8th 7th centuries B C from Barberini tomb National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia Rome 31 There may also be so called tendrils or curled spiral locks depicted presumably representing either hair mane or feather crest locks dangling down Single or double streaked tendrils hang down both sides and behind the griffin s neck carven on some of the Greek protomes 30 32 f The tendril motif emerged at the beginning of the first millennium BC in various parts of the Orient 33 The double spiral of hair running downwards from the base of the ear is said to be a hallmark of Iranian Uratrian art 34 The Etruscan cauldron griffins e g from Barberini tomb it figure right g h also bear the curled tresses that are the signature of Uratrian workmanship 35 i Even the ornate crests on Mycenean griffins such as the fresco of the Throne Room figure top of page may be a development of these curled tresses 38 j Top knob One prominent characteristic of the cauldron griffins is the top knob between the brows 30 seemingly situated at the top of the head 39 The top knob feature has clear oriental origins 40 Jack Leonard Benson says these appendages were topknots subsequently rendered as knobs in later development of the cauldron Griffins 41 Benson s emphasis is that the Greeks attached a stylized anorganic topknot 41 or an inorganic plug on the griffin s head due to lack of information 41 k while in contrast a known oriental example stone protomes from Nimrud is simple but more plausible naturalistic resembling a forelock 42 Warts A cluster of warts between the eyes are also mentioned 43 One conjecture is that these derive from the bumps furrows on a lion s snout 44 Another view regards the wart as deriving from the bumpy cockscomb on a rooster or other such fowls 45 Art in antiquity nbsp Griffin seal impression Susa Iran 4th millennium B C Louvres 46 47 nbsp Bronze griffins from ancient Luristan Iran 1st millennium BC Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin Mesopotamia Griffin like animals were depicted on cylinder seals in Mesopotamia c 3000 BC 48 perhaps as early as the Uruk period 4000 3100BC and subsequent Proto Elamite Jemdet Nasr period 47 An example of a winged lion with beaks unearthed in Susa cf fig right 46 dates to the 4th millennium B C and is a unique example of a griffin like animal with a male lion s mane 47 However this monster then ceased to continue to be expressed after the Elamite culture 47 What the Sumerians of the Early Dynastic period portrayed instead were winged lions and the lion headed eagle Imdugud 49 In the Akkadian Empire that succeeded Sumer early examples from early 3rd millennium BC 50 of lions with bird heads appeared on cylinder seals shown pulling the chariots for its rider the weather god 52 53 The lion griffin on Akkadian seals are also shown as fire belching and shaggy at the neck in particular examples 54 49 50 The bronzeworks of Luristan the North and North West region of Iran in the Iron Age include examples of Achaemenid art depicting both the bird griffin and lion griffin designs such as are found on horse bits 55 8 Bernard Goldman maintains the position that Luristan examples must be counted as developments of the lion griffin type even when it exhibits stylization approaching the beak of a bird 56 The Luristan griffin like creatures resemble and perhaps are descended from Assyrian creatures possibly influenced by Mitannian animals 57 58 or perhaps there had been parallel development in both Assyrian and Elamite cultures 55 Iran Bird headed mammal images appeared in art of the Achaemenian Persian Empire Russian jewelry historian Elena Neva maintained that the Achaemenids considered the griffin a protector from evil witchcraft and secret slander 59 but no writings exist from Achaemenid Persia to support her claim R L Fox 1973 remarks that a lion griffin attacks a stag in a pebble mosaic at Pella from the 4th century BC 60 61 perhaps serving as an emblem of the kingdom of Macedon or a personal emblem of Antipater one of Alexander s successors A golden frontal half of a griffin like animal from the Ziwiye hoard near Saqqez city in Kurdistan Province Iran resembles the western protomes in style 62 l They were of Urartian workmanship neither Assyrian or Scythian m 34 though the hoard itself may have represented a Scythian burial 63 The animal is described as having a visor i e beaks made by Urartian craftsmen similar to what is found on Greek protomes 34 Egypt Representations of griffin like hybrids with four legs and a beaked head appeared in Ancient Egyptian art dating back to before 3000 BC 64 The oldest known depiction of a griffin like animal in Egypt appears as a relief carving on slate on the cosmetic palette from Hierakonpolis 66 the Two Dog Palette 67 dated to the Early Dynastic Period 68 c 3300 3100 BC 69 Near East elsewhere Griffin type creatures combining raptor heads and mammalian bodies were depicted in the Levant Syria and Anatolia during the Middle Bronze Age 70 71 dated at about 1950 1550 BC 72 Greece See also Divine creature nbsp Bronze griffin head fragment of a cauldron protome Olympia Greece 7th century BC Olympia museumGriffin type animals appeared in the art of ancient Crete in the MM III Period 1650 1600 BC in Minoan chronology found on sealings from Zakro and miniature frescos dated to this period 73 One early example of griffin types in Minoan art occurs in the 15th century BC frescoes of the Throne Room of the Bronze Age Palace of Knossos as restored by Sir Arthur Evans The griffin like hybrid became a fixture of Aegean culture since the Late Bronze Age 74 but the animal called the gryps or griffin in Greek writings did not appear in Greek art until about 700 BC 34 or rather it was rediscovered as artistic motif in the 8th to 7th centuries BC adapting the style of griffin current in Neo Hittite art 74 75 It became quite popular in the 6th and 5th centuries BC when the Greeks first began to record accounts of the gryps creature from travelers to Asia such as Aristeas of Proconnesus A number of bronze griffin protomes on cauldrons have been unearthed in Greece on Samos and at Olympia etc cf fig right 76 Early Greek and early Etruscan e g the Barberini examples of cauldron griffins may have been of Syric Urartian make based on evidence the tendrils or tresses motif was already touched upon above but Vannic Urartian originals have yet to be found in the Orient 77 It has thus been controversially argued by Ulf Jantzen de that these attachments had always since the earliest times been crafted by Greek workshops n added to the plain cauldrons imported from the Near East o Detractors notably K R Maxwell Hyslop believe that early examples of 78 the griffin ornamented cauldron in its entirely were crafted in the East though excavated finds from the Orient are scarce 79 80 Central Asia In Central Asia the griffin image was included in Scythian animal style artifacts of the 6th 4th centuries BC but no writings explain their meaning citation needed The Golden Pectoral from Tovsta Mohyla interred in Scythian king s burial site perhaps commissioned to Greek goldsmiths who engraved the image of a griffin attacking a horse Other Scythian artifacts show griffins attacking horses stags and goats Griffins are typically shown attacking horses deer and humans in Greek art Nomads were said to steal griffin guarded gold according to Scythian oral traditions reported by Greek and Roman travelers nbsp Griffin inscription at Sanchi Stupa from 3rd century BCEAncient parallelsSeveral ancient mythological creatures are similar to the griffin These include the Lamassu an Assyrian protective deity often depicted with a bull or lion s body eagle s wings and human s head Sumerian and Akkadian mythology feature the demon Anzu half man and half bird associated with the chief sky god Enlil This was a divine storm bird linked with the southern wind and the thunder clouds Jewish mythology speaks of the Ziz which resembles Anzu as well as the ancient Greek Phoenix The Bible mentions the Ziz in Psalms 50 11 This is also similar to a cherub The cherub or sphinx was very popular in Phoenician iconography In ancient Crete griffins became very popular and were portrayed in various media A similar creature is the Minoan Genius In the Hindu religion Garuda is a large bird like creature that serves as a mount vahana of the deity Vishnu It is also the name for the constellation Aquila Classical accountsHerodotus etc Local lore on the griffin was gathered by Aristeas of Proconnesus a Greek who traveled to the Altai region between Mongolia and NW China in the 7th century BC Although Aristeas s original poem was lost the griffin lore preserved in secondhand accounts by the playwright Aeschylus ca 460 BC and later his contemporary Herodotus the historian 81 82 Herodotus explains via Aristeas that the gold guarding griffins supposedly dwelled further north from the one eyed Arimaspi people p who robbed the gold from the fabulous creatures Aristeas is said to have been informed through the Issedones people neighboring region to the Arimaspi in the northern extremes of Central Asia 85 86 Aeschylus also concurs that the Arimaspi robbed the gold which the griffins collected from various areas in the periphery presumably including the Armaspi s territorial stream the stream of Pluto rolling with gold The equestrian Arimaspi would ride off with the loot and the griffins would give pursuit 88 Aeschylus likened the griffins to silent hounds of Zeus 89 q That they are called dogs or hounds here has led to the conjecture that Aeschylus considered them wingless or flightless 81 r Gryphons of India and gold digging ants Whereas Ctesias had located the griffins in India and more explicitly classed them as beaked four legged birds 81 Herodotus also mentions elsewhere that there are gold collecting ants in Kashmir India and this has been interpreted by modern scholars as doublets or garbled versions of the lore of gold hoarding griffins 90 It appears that the accounts of griffins given by Pliny had been admixed with the lore of these gold guarding ants of India 89 and later Aelian also inserted attributes of the ant into his description of griffins 83 Pliny and later Later Pliny the Elder became the first to explicitly state the griffins as having wings and long ears 91 92 s In one of the two passages Pliny also located the griffons in AEthiopia 92 According to Adrienne Mayor Pliny also wrote griffins were said to lay eggs in burrows on the ground and these nests contained gold nuggets 93 Apollonius of Tyana t who was nearly coeval with Pliny gave a somewhat unique account of the griffin claiming them to be lion sized and having no true wings and instead had paws webbed with red membranes that gave them ability to makes leaps of flight of only a short distance 94 81 u Pomponius Mela fl AD 43 wrote in his Book ii 6 In Europe constantly falling snow makes those places contiguous with the Riphaean Mountains so impassable that in addition they prevent those who deliberately travel here from seeing anything After that comes a region of very rich soil but quite uninhabitable because griffins a savage and tenacious breed of wild beasts love the gold that is mined from deep within the earth there and because they guard it with an amazing hostility to those who set foot there 96 The aforementioned Aelian Claudius Aelianus d 235 AD added certain other embellishments such as its reputation of black plumage on its back with a red chest and white wings 98 Aelian was the last source on the griffin to add fresh information on the griffin and late writers into medieval times merely rehashed existing material on griffins with the exception of the lore about their agate eggs which emerged at some indistinct time later on cf infra 99 Divine creature The griffin has been associated with various deities Apollo Dionysus Nemesis in Greek mythography but here the identifiable attested accounts presented in scholarship are largely not literary but artistic 100 or numismatic The griffin was naturally linked to Apollo given the existence of the cultus of Hyperborean Apollo with a cult center at the Greek colony of Olbia on the Black Sea 101 102 And even the main Temple of Apollo at Delphi featured a statue of the god flanked by griffins or so it can be presumed based on the representation struck on the tetradrachm coinage of Attica 102 Apollo rode a griffin to Hyperboria each winter leaving Delphi or so it was believed 103 Apollo riding griffin is known from multiple examples of red figure pottery 106 107 And Apollo hitched griffins to his chariot according to Claudian 109 Dionysus was also depicted on a griffin chariot 110 or mounting griffin the motif was borrowed from the god Apollo due to syncretism between the two gods 112 At the Temple of Hera at Samos a griffin themed bronze wine cup 113 or cauldron 114 had been installed according to Herodotus The vessel was attached griffin heads around the rim like the protomes 115 described above it was an Argolic or Argive krater according to the text v standing on a tripod shaped like colossal figures 113 114 Medieval accounts nbsp A soldier fighting a griffin Alphonso Psalter 1284 nbsp Stonemasonry with Griffins late 11th 12th c Gradina Rakovac Serbia nbsp Medieval tapestry Basel c 1450 CEIn medieval legend griffins not only mated for life but if either partner died then the other would continue the rest of its life alone never to search for a new mate citation needed The griffin was thus made an emblem of the Church s opposition to remarriage dubious discuss The notion that griffins lay stones or agate instead of eggs was introduced at some in the evolution of griffin lore 116 Albertus Magnus d 1280 attributes to other writers the claim that this bird places an eagle stone echytem or agate gagatem among its eggs to change the ambient temperature and enhance reproduction 117 118 Christian symbolism The account of the gryphes by Isidore of Seville d 636 lacked any Christian allegorical interpretation and the griffin is classified as a beast of prey 119 Thus Isidore Etymologies xii 2 17 5 120 gives The Gryphes are so called because they are winged quadrupeds This kind of wild beast is found in the Hyperborean Mountains In every part of their body they are lions and in wings and heads are like eagles and they are fierce enemies of horses Moreover they tear men to pieces 121 119 Isidore s localization of the griffins in the mountains of Hyperborea derives from Servius 4th and 5th century 122 Griffins had already been localized Riphean Mountains by Mela 1st century as quoted above 96 while the Hyperboreans are sometimes said to dwell further north than these mountains The idea that griffins hated horses can be explained as an offshoot of the lore that griffins had their gold stolen by horseback riding Arimaspians 123 The griffin were already being depicted attacking the horse in ancient art as on the gold pectoral of the Scythian King noted above 101 Despite Isidore passing on classical without religious connotation the griffin being a union of an aerial bird and a terrestrial beast came to be regarded in Christendom as a symbol of Jesus who was both human and divine espoused by many commentators who see this evidenced in the griffin that draws the chariot in Dante s Purgatorio cf In literature below 124 125 3 A slightly different interpretation was that the griffin symbolized the pope or papacy rather than Christ himself as proposed by French critic Didron who built this interpretation upon the observation that Herrad of Landsberg s manuscript Hortus deliciarum completed c 1185 clearly depicted the two colored bird as symbolic of the Church 124 At any rate the griffin can be found sculpted at a number of Christian churches 125 3 Claw egg feather nbsp Martin Schongauer The griffin 15th centuryAlleged griffin s claws eggs and feathers were held as valuable objects but actually derived from exotic animals etc 126 127 The eggs were often ostrich eggs or in rare cases fossilized dinosaur eggs 128 The feather is a piece of forgery an object crafted from raffia palm fiber with painted colors 129 The supposed claws were often turned into drinking cups 126 130 and griffin egg artifacts were also used as goblets according to heraldry scholars 126 131 132 A number of medieval griffin s claws existed sometimes purported to be very large 133 St Cuthbert is said to have obtained claw and egg two claws and two eggs were registered in the 1383 inventory of the saint s shrine 134 but the two feet claws that still remain on display have been identified as Alpine ibex horns 130 There is said to be a legend that a griffin s claw was made into a cup and dedicated to Cuthbert 135 As a matter of fact griffin claws were frequently fashioned into goblets drinking cups in medieval Europe 126 130 and specific examples can be given such as Charlemagne s griffin claw drinking horn formerly at Saint Denis and now housed in the Bibliotheque Nationale is a drinking cup made of a bovine horn Additional ornamentation were attached to it such as a gilt copper leg for it to stand on realistically resembling the taloned foot of a raptor 136 w Kornelimunster Abbey located in Charlemagne s former capital of Aix la Chapelle now Aachen Germany also houses a griffin horn of Pope Cornelius made of Asian buffalo horn 137 Medieval iconography nbsp Byzantine silk with griffins 11th century now in Sion SwitzerlandBy the 12th century the appearance of the griffin was substantially fixed All its bodily members are like a lion s but its wings and mask are like an eagle s 138 It is not yet clear if its forelimbs are those of an eagle or of a lion Although the description implies the latter the accompanying illustration is ambiguous It was left to the heralds to clarify that Griffins also appear on a wide range of medieval luxury objects such as textiles and in these contexts are part of a shared visual language deployed by artisans in the Byzantine western medieval and Islamic worlds 139 FolkloreAccording to Stephen Friar s New Dictionary of Heraldry a griffin s claw was believed to have medicinal properties and one of its feathers could restore sight to the blind 3 additional citation s needed Attestation of griffin s feather as cure for blindness does occur in an Italian folktale 140 classed as The Singing Bone tale type ATU 780 141 There is also a study that considers the griffin s feather tale as a variant of The Twa Sisters ballad Child Ballad 10 as the tale incorporates the song in Italian supposedly sung by the bones of the murdered finder of the feather 142 It may not be a griffin s feather but another kind of avian plumage peacock feather that remedies blindness in other Italian variants of this folktale type 143 In heraldrySee also List of griffins as mascots and in heraldry nbsp A heraldic griffin passant of the Bevan family crest nbsp Griffin segreant wearing the mural crown of Perugia 13th century nbsp Pomeranian coat of arms nbsp Coat of arms of Greifswald Germany in Mecklenburg Vorpommern nbsp The Gryf coat of arms of the knighthood family Gryfici x nbsp Coat of arms of Crimea Griffins in heraldry are usually portrayed with the rear body of a lion an eagle s head with erect ears a feathered breast and the forelegs of an eagle including claws 144 The heraldic griffin denote d strength and military courage and leadership according to one source 144 That it became a Christian symbol of divine power and a guardian of the divine 145 was already touched upon above Griffins may be shown in a variety of poses but in British heraldry are never shown with their wings closed Heraldic griffins use the same attitude terminology as the lion with the exception that where a lion would be described as rampant a griffin is instead described as segreant 146 In British heraldry a male griffin is shown without wings its body covered in tufts of formidable spikes with a short tusk emerging from the forehead as for a unicorn 147 In some blazons this variant is termed a keythong 1 This distinction is not found outside of British heraldry even within it male griffins are much rarer than winged ones which are not given a specific name One example is John Butler 6th Earl of Ormond whose badge was described as featuring a peyr pair of keythongs 148 It is possible that the male griffin keythong originated as a derivation of the heraldic panther 146 Houses and cities using the device When Genoa emerged as a major seafaring power in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance griffins commenced to be depicted as part of the republic s coat of arms rearing at the sides of the shield bearing the Cross of St George The red griffin rampant was the coat of arms of the dukes of Pomerania and survives today as the armorial of West Pomeranian Voivodeship historically Farther Pomerania in Poland It is also part of the coat of arms of the German state of Mecklenburg Vorpommern representing the historical region Vorpommern Hither Pommerania VariantsHippogriff A hippogriff is a related legendary creature supposedly the offspring of a griffin and a mare Heraldic subtypes Wingless griffin Infrequently a griffin is portrayed without wings or a wingless eagle headed lion is identified as a griffin In 15th century and later heraldry such a wingless griffin may be called an alke a keythong or a male griffin Sea griffin The sea griffin also termed the gryphon marine is a heraldic variant of the griffin possessing the head and legs of the more common variant and the hindquarters of a fish or a mermaid Sea griffins are present on the arms of a number of German noble families including the Mestich family of Silesia and the Barony of Puttkamer 146 Opinicus The opinicus or epimacus is another heraldic variety of griffin which is depicted with the head and wings of an eagle the body and legs of a lion and the tail of a camel It is sometimes wingless The opinicus is rarely used in heraldry but appears in the arms of the Worshipful Company of Barbers 149 150 151 In architecture nbsp The Pisa Griffin Pisa Cathedral Museum 11th century nbsp Statue of a griffin St Mark s Basilica Venice The Pisa Griffin is a large bronze sculpture that has been in Pisa in Italy since the Middle Ages though it is of Islamic origin It is the largest bronze medieval Islamic sculpture known at over 3 feet tall 42 5 inches or 1 08 m and was probably created in the 11th century AD in Al Andaluz Islamic Spain 152 153 From about 1100 it was placed on a column on the roof of Pisa Cathedral until replaced by a replica in 1832 the original is now in the Museo dell Opera del Duomo Cathedral Museum Pisa In architectural decoration the griffin is usually represented as a four footed beast with wings and the head of an eagle with horns or with the head and beak of an eagle citation needed The statues that mark the entrance to the City of London are sometimes mistaken for griffins but are in fact Tudor dragons the supporters of the city s arms 154 They are most easily distinguished from griffins by their membranous rather than feathered wings In fictionFor fictional characters named Griffin see Griffin surname Griffins are used widely in Persian poetry Rumi is one such poet who writes in reference to griffins 155 In Dante Alighieri s Divine Comedy story Purgatorio after Dante and Virgil s journey through Hell and Purgatory has concluded Dante meets a chariot dragged by a griffin in Earthly Paradise Immediately afterwards Dante is reunited with Beatrice Dante and Beatrice then start their journey through Paradise nbsp Illustration for Mandeville s legend by H J Ford 1899Sir John Mandeville wrote about them in his 14th century book of travels In that country be many griffins more plenty than in any other country Some men say that they have the body upward as an eagle and beneath as a lion and truly they say sooth that they be of that shape But one griffin hath the body more great and is more strong than eight lions of such lions as be on this half and more great and stronger than an hundred eagles such as we have amongst us For one griffin there will bear flying to his nest a great horse if he may find him at the point or two oxen yoked together as they go at the plough For he hath his talons so long and so large and great upon his feet as though they were horns of great oxen or of bugles or of kine so that men make cups of them to drink of And of their ribs and of the pens of their wings men make bows full strong to shoot with arrows and quarrels 156 135 nbsp Griffin misericord Ripon Cathedral alleged inspiration for the Gryphon in Lewis Carroll s Alice s Adventures in WonderlandJohn Milton in Paradise Lost he mentions the griffin as an allusion to Satan 157 As when a Gryfon through the WildernessWith winged course ore Hill or moarie Dale Pursues the Arimaspian who by stelth Had from his wakeful custody purloindThe guarded Gold Theories of originPossible influence by dinosaurs nbsp Early historic references to the gryphon describe the area of the Dzungarian Gate a region where Protoceratops and Psittacosaurus skeletons are very common Adrienne Mayor a classical folklorist and historian of science has speculated that the way the Greeks imagined griffins from the seventh century BC onwards may have been influenced in part by the fossilized remains of beaked dinosaurs such as Protoceratops and Psittacosaurus observed on the way to gold deposits by nomadic prospectors of ancient Scythia Central Asia 158 This speculation is based on Greek and Latin literary sources and related artworks in a specific time frame beginning with the first written descriptions of griffins as real animals of Asia in a lost work by Aristeas referenced by Herodotus ca 450 BC and ending with Aelian 3rd century AD the last ancient author to report any new details about the griffin Mayor took a paleo cryptozoological approach trying to identify the unknown creature by its features body like a mammal but head with raptor s beak dwelling in Eastern deserts on way to gold deposits lays eggs in nest on the ground No living animal has these characteristics but some dinosaurs had all of these features leading to the question of whether ancient nomads who first told Greeks about griffins could have observed fossil skeletons of beaked dinosaurs and nests with eggs Mayor argues that Protoceratops and other fossils seen by ancient observers may have been interpreted as evidence of a half bird half mammal creature 159 She argues that repeated oral descriptions and artistic attempts to illustrate a bony neck frill which is rather fragile and may have been frequently broken or entirely weathered away may have been rendered as large mammal type external ears and its beak may be treated as evidence of a part bird nature and led to stylized wings being added to accord with the creature s avian like attributes 160 Paleontologist Mark P Witton has contested this hypothesis arguing that it ignores the existence of depictions of hybrid creatures bird s heads on mammal bodies throughout the Near East dating to long before the time when Mayor posits the Greeks became aware of Protoceratops fossils in Scythia Witton further argues that the anatomies of griffins in Greek art are clearly based on those of living creatures especially lions and eagles and that there are no features of griffins in Greek art that can only be explained by the hypothesis that the griffins were based on fossils He notes that Greek accounts of griffins describe them as living creatures not ancient skeletons and that some of the details of these accounts suggest griffins are purely imaginary not inspired by fossils 161 Modern culturePopular fiction Griffins like many other fictional creatures frequently appear within works under the fantasy genre Examples of fantasy oriented franchises that feature griffins include Warhammer Fantasy Battle Warcraft Heroes of Might and Magic the Griffon in Dungeons amp Dragons Ragnarok Online Harry Potter The Spiderwick Chronicles My Little Pony Friendship is Magic and The Battle for Wesnoth Griffins appear in the fairy tales Jack the Giant Killer The Griffin and The Singing Springing Lark In Digimon there is a Digimon called Gryphomon who is based off the depiction of a griffin that has a snake headed tail In The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan Percy Jackson Hazel Levesque and Frank Zhang are attacked by griffins in Alaska In the Harry Potter series the character Albus Dumbledore has a griffin shaped knocker Also the character Godric Gryffindor s surname is a variation on the French griffon d or golden griffon Modern art nbsp Griff Statue in the forecourt of the Farkashegyi Cemetery Budapest 2007The griffin is the symbol of the Philadelphia Museum of Art bronze castings of them perch on each corner of the museum s roof protecting its collection 162 163 The Griff statue by Veres Kalman hu was erected in 2007 at the forecourt of the Farkashegyi cemetery in Budapest Hungary Logos mascots nbsp Municipal official seal modern of Heraklion Greece nbsp Merv Griffin Entertainment logo See also Eponymy An archaic griffin design created by artist Thomas Fanourakis el 1915 1993 was adopted as the official symbol of the city of Heraklion on 22 March 1961 cf figure right y 164 Film and television company Merv Griffin Entertainment uses a griffin for its production company Merv Griffin Entertainment was founded by entrepreneur Merv Griffin and is based in Beverly Hills California His former company Merv Griffin Enterprises also used a griffin for its logo The griffin is used in the logo of United Paper Mills Vauxhall Motors and of Scania and its former partners Saab Group and Saab Automobile Similarly prior to the mid 1990s a griffin formed part of the logo of Midland Bank now HSBC Saab Automobile previously used the griffin in their logo Cf Saab fighter Gripen Information security firm Halock uses a griffin to represent protecting data and systems School emblems and mascots Further information List of griffins as mascots and in heraldry This section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Griffin news newspapers books scholar JSTOR September 2017 Learn how and when to remove this template message nbsp The Gryphon is the emblem and mascot of the University of GuelphThree gryphons form the crest of Trinity College Oxford founded 1555 originating from the family crest of founder Sir Thomas Pope The college s debating society is known as the Gryphon and the notes of its master emeritus show it to be one of the oldest debating institutions in the country significantly older than the more famous Oxford Union Society 165 Griffins are also mascots for VU University Amsterdam 166 Reed College 167 Sarah Lawrence College 168 the University of Guelph and Canisius College citation needed The Gryphon is the official school mascot for Raffles Institution appearing also on the top of the school crest The official seal of Purdue University was adopted during the university s centennial in 1969 The seal approved by the Board of Trustees was designed by Prof Al Gowan formerly at Purdue It replaced an unofficial one that had been in use for 73 years 169 The College of William and Mary in Virginia changed its mascot to Griffin in April 2010 170 171 The griffin was chosen because it is the combination of the British lion and the American eagle The 367th Training Support Squadron s and 12th Combat Aviation Brigade feature griffins in their unit patches The emblem of the Greek 15th Infantry Division features an ax wielding griffin on its unit patch The English private school of Wycliffe College features a griffin on its school crest The mascot of St Mary s College one of the 16 colleges in Durham University is a griffin The mascot of Glebe Collegiate Institute in Ottawa is the gryphon and the team name is the Glebe Gryphons The griffin is the official mascot of Chestnut Hill College and Gwynedd Mercy University both in Pennsylvania The mascot of Leadership High School in San Francisco CA was chosen by the student body by popular vote to be the griffin after the Golden Gate University Griffins where they operated out of from 1997 to 2000 The Gryphon is the school mascot for Glenlyon Norfolk School an independent co ed university preparatory day school in Victoria and Oak Bay British Columbia Canada Police and military nbsp Yellow griffin pictured in the logo of the Estonian Internal Security Service nbsp Flag of the Utti Jaeger Regiment of the Finnish Army A griffin appears in the official seal of the Waterloo Police Department Iowa The Royal Air Force Police depicts a griffin for their unit badge The Royal New Zealand Air Force Police depicts a griffin holding a taiaha for their unit badge Professional sports The Grand Rapids Griffins professional ice hockey team of the American Hockey League Suwon Samsung Bluewings s mascot Aguileon is a griffin The name Aguileon is a compound using two Spanish words aguila meaning eagle and leon meaning lion Amusement parks Busch Gardens Williamsburg s highlight attraction is a dive coaster called the Griffon which opened in 2007 In 2013 Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky Ohio opened the GateKeeper steel roller coaster which features a griffin as its mascot Iran Air Logo The logo design of Iran Air features a griffin The pattern of this design created by Edward Zahrabian is based on a griffin statue found in Persepolis A common mistake regarding this is the assumption that the griffin is the same as the mythical bird Homa but this is incorrect This mistake has arisen because the acronym for the National Airline of Iran in Persian is Homa In film and televisionThis section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Griffin news newspapers books scholar JSTOR January 2023 Learn how and when to remove this template message Griffins appear in The Chronicles of Narnia The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian Griffins are also present in various animated series such as My Little Pony Friendship is Magic World of Quest Yin Yang Yo and Family Guy 172 A griffin appeared in the 1974 film The Golden Voyage of Sinbad In the 1969 movie Latitude Zero a creature called Griffin is made by inserting a woman s brain into a lion condor hybrid In an episode of the sitcom The Big Bang Theory Dr Sheldon Cooper mentions that he attempted to create a griffin but could not obtain the necessary eagle eggs and lion semen 173 EponymyThe latest fighter produced by the Saab Group bears the name Gripen Griffin as a result of public competition During World War II the Heinkel firm named its heavy bomber design for the Luftwaffe after the legendary animal as the Heinkel He 177 Greif the German form of griffin General Atomics has used the term Griffin Eye for its intelligence surveillance platform based on a Hawker Beechcraft King Air 35ER civilian aircraft 174 Fauna names Some large species of Old World vultures are called griffines including the griffon vulture Gyps fulvus The scientific name for the Andean condor is Vultur gryphus Latin for griffin vulture The Catholic Douay Rheims version of the Bible uses griffon for a creature referred to as vulture or ossifrage in other English translations Leviticus 11 13 Gallery nbsp Griffin in Johann Vogel Meditationes emblematicae de restaurata pace Germaniae 1649 nbsp Heraldic guardian griffin at Kasteel de Haar Netherlands 1892 1912 nbsp Rogue taxidermy griffin Zoological Museum CopenhagenSee alsoChimera Greek mythological hybrid monster Duck billed platypus an egg producing mammal with a beak Hybrid creatures in mythology List of hybrid creatures in mythology Nue Japanese legendary creature Pegasus winged stallion in Greek mythology Pixiu or Pi Yao Chinese mythical creature Sharabha Hindu mythology lion bird hybrid Snow Lion Tibetan mythological celestial animal Yali Hindu mythological lion elephant horse hybridExplanatory notes Abdera minted coins since it was founded in 544 BC as a colony of Teos which also used the griffin motif Also Senmurw etymological root was Avestan meregō saenō mareya saena which also denoted a bird falcon or eagle 12 and not a composite as conceded by Litvinskij 11 tsts The s glyph seems to be 𓈚 rathe than 𓈙 and are thus superposed in Leibovitch s inline text however the glyps are juxtaposed and seemingly the plain bar s is used on his Fig 5 line sketch The cast pieces could also have additional hammered details 28 The cast protomes are grouped by Jantzen 29 The beaks on the Greeks are identified as visor of beasts such as seen in Urartian art by Ghirshman 1964c p 108 The example on figure right is the broken off head and it is not certain whether the paired spiral locks ran down its neck as in other examples of griffin protomes from Olympia Jantzen GG no 80 p 20 See the cover photo of this cauldron in Papalexandrou 2021 and Fig 3 2 The lateral side of the griffins are hard to see on this picture shown right the lions do not have these hanging tresses Cf Fig 3 3 for another cauldron from the Bernardini tomb it Both are bronze cauldrons on a conical stand An additional example of Etruscan griffin is the one found in Vetulonia Italy 35 36 While Maxwell Hyslop thought early griffin protomes were made in the east she regarded later Etruscan examples as being made locally imitating the Eastern originals but such Vannic Urartrians originals are yet to be found 37 In addition to the Throne Room Goldman provides the following Mycenaean examples the ivory plaque of Mycenae Demargne Pierre 1947 La Crete dedalique fig 24 the gold cylinder seal from Pylos Blegen Carl W 5 December 1953 A Royal Tomb of Homeric Times Illustrated London News fig 7 Benson thinks using a simplified plug shape was the Greek solution to the problem of not knowing exactly what 3 dimensional shape to use having only access to 2 dimensional renderings from the East Ghirshman and others cf Maxwell Hyslop 1956 p 160 citing Andre Godard thought the Ziwiye griffin was a protome to a lost cauldron Goldman thinks this unlikely as the animal is posed in couchant position and gold is too soft a metal Godard Andre 1950 Le tresor de Ziwiye at Fig 30 considered the object a Scythinan import Cited by Maxwell Hyslop 1956 p 160 That later griffin protomes are Greek made is without question Goldman 1960 p 321 George M A Hanfmann agreed with Jantzen that the protomes were always Greek but disagreed with Jantzen on the caudron and doubted cauldrons were separately made in the East But Herdotus doubted that Arimaspeans were monocular The Scythian word arimasp signifies rich in horses rather than one eyed 83 To distinguish from the screaming harpies referred as dogs of Zeus by Apollonius of Rhodes II 289 87 Mayor s reasoning being that Aeschylus elsewhere refers to eagles as winged dogs of Zeus 81 However this seems contradictory to Apollonius being able to refer to winged harpies as Zeus dogs 87 as noted previously The word for eared in the text is aurita in declined form auritus Charlton T Lewis and Charles Short A Latin Dictionary on Perseus Project gives the definition Furnished with ears acc to auris l having long or large ears Apollonius of Tyana s writings as recorded in his biography by Flavius Philostratus Apollonius also compares the griffins to gold gathering ants though he places the ants not in India but in Africa Aethiopia 95 krhtῆros Ἀrgolikoῦ Mayor seems to suggest it may have been the carved ivory horn obtained as a gift from Harun al Rashid who also gave Charlemagne the live elephant Abul Abbas 136 However the ivory horn given by the caliph seems more likely to be Charlemagne s olifant perhaps the one held in Aachen Used since c 1481 Polish noble families The design of the griffin is a mock up of Minoan art but the inscription language is archaicized Greek not Minoan Linear A and Cretan hieroglyphs ReferencesCitations Felix Gaffiot 1934 Dictionnaire Illustre Latin Francais Paris Hachette Ronald Edward Latham David Robert Howlett Richard Ashdowne 1975 2013 Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources London British Academy a b c d Friar Stephen 1987 A New Dictionary of Heraldry London Alphabooks A amp C Black p 173 ISBN 978 0 906670 44 6 Bement Clarence S 1921 Descriptive Catalogue of Greek Coins selected from the cabinet Philadelphia American Numismatic Society p 43 and Plate X 144 144 AR silver Phoenician Tetradrachm 14 94 gr 27 mm Obv Griffin seated l on a fish with rounded feathered wing around magistrate s name Kallidamas around circle of dots Rev Abdhritwn on border of an incuse square within smaller linear square in four compartments a b Isidore of Seville 2005 Isidore of Seville s Etymologies Complete English Translation Vol 2 Translated by Throop Priscilla MedievalMS xii 2 17 ISBN 9781411665262 William H C Propp Exodus 19 40 volume 2A of The Anchor Bible New York Doubleday 2006 ISBN 0 385 24693 5 p 386 citing Julius Wellhausen Prolegomena to the History of Israel Edinburgh Black 1885 p 304 Also see Robert S P Beekes Etymological Dictionary of Greek volume 1 Leiden and Boston Brill 2010 ISBN 978 90 04 17420 7 p 289 entry for grypos From the archaeological perspective origin in Asia Minor and the Near East Elam is very probable a b Taheri 2013 Asadi Arezoo Darvishi Farangis Winter 2020 The Reflection of Mythological Concepts in Achaemenid Jewelry Art Journal of Iranian Studies 18 36 Faculty of Literature and Humanities Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman 21 41 Litvinskij Boris A in Russian Picikian Igor R 1995 Invernizzi Antonio ed An Achaemenian griffin handle from the Temple of the Oxus the makhaira in Northern Bactria In the Land of the Gryphons Papers on Central Asian Archaeology in Antiquity Le lettere p 123 ISBN 9788871662480 a b Litvinskij Boris A in Russian 2002 Copper cauldrons from Gilgit and Central Asia more about Saka and Dards and related problems East and West 52 1 4 141 a b c d e Schmidt Hanns Peter 2003 Simorg Encyclopedia Iranica Costa Mesa Mazda Pub Harper P O 1961 The Senmurw Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin Series 2 20 3 95 101 doi 10 2307 3257932 JSTOR 3257932 apud Schmidt 12 Marr N Ya 1918 Ossetica Japhetica Izvestiya Rossiskoi Akademii Nauk Izvestiya Rossijskoj akademii nauk 2087 n 2 apud Schmidt 12 Kiperwasser Reuven Shapira Dan D Y 2012 Secunda Shai Fine Steven eds Irano Talmudica II Leviathan Behemoth and the Domestication of Iranian Mythological Creatures in Eschatological Narratives of the Babylonian Talmud Shoshannat Yaakov Jewish and Iranian studies in honor of Yaakov Elman Brill p 209 and n22 ISBN 9789004235458 Henning W B 1947 Two Manichaean Magical Texts with an Excursus on the Parthian Ending endeh Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies University of London 12 1 41 42 doi 10 1017 S0041977X0007988X JSTOR 608983 S2CID 194111905 Reprinted in Duchesne Guillemin Jacques ed 1977 B Henning selected papers Acta Iranica 10 pp 274 275 a b c Griffith F Ll Newberry Percy Edward 1895 El Bersheh Vol 2 Appended by George Willoughby Fraser Sold at the Offices of the Egypt Exploration Fund pp 34 35 and Pl XVI tomb no 5 Another monster is seen just above a lion with the head of a hawk the wings of an eagle and the horns and feathers of a god called tesh tesh the tearer in pieces Riefstahl 1956 p 2 citing Leibovitch Leibovitch 1942 pp 186 187 and Fig 5 tsts signifie dechirer triturer couper metter en pieces tsts denotes tearing grind up chopping ripping to pieces Citing Griffith amp Newberry 1895 El Bersheh 2 Pl XVI tomb no 5 17 a b David Arlette 2016 3 Hybridism as a Visual Mark of Divinity The Case of Akhenaten in David Arlette Milstein Rachel Ornan Tallay eds Picturing Royal Charisma Kings and Rulers in the Near East from 3000 BCE to 1700 CE Archaeopress Publishing Limited pp 52 53 and Table 3 1 ISBN 9781803271613 David glosses tsts as Crusher 20 which is consistent with one of Leibovitch s several glosses lt But David note 8 indicates the source to be Newberry 1893b Beni Hasan II Pl 16 which probably should by Griffith amp Newberry El Bersheh II 0 Pl 16 gt Leibovitch 1942 pp 186 187 David 20 citing Newberry 1893a 1893b recte 1893 1894 Beni Hasan Leibovitch 1942 p 187 Leibovitch 1942 pp 186 Prakash Tara 2022 Ancient Egyptian Prisoner Statues Fragments of the Late Old Kingdom Lockwood Press pp 50 51 ISBN 9780892362233 The epithet the Crusher or Trampler is also given by Riefstahl 1956 p 2 citing Leibovitch but the words do not actually occur as names epithets in Leibovitch s reading of the inscription Spdw le seigneur des pays montagne qui ecrase en les pietinant Sopdu the lord of the mountain countries who crushes trampling them The inscription is from Sahure pharaoh of Fifth Dynasty of Egypt 25 A relief represents Sahure as an enemy trampling griffin in the reliefs work found in his pyramid complex 26 Benson 1960 p 60 et passim Third Group GG p 56 apud Benson 1960 pp 59 60 a b c d e Goldman 1960 p 321 Ghirshman 1964c p 434 Jantzen 1955 pp 20 69 70 Goldman 1960 p 322 a b c d Ghirshman 1964c p 108 a b Chahin Mack 2001 1987 The Kingdom of Armenia Curzon p 151 ISBN 9780700714520 Papalexandrou 2021 Fig 3 6 Goldman 1960 pp 320 321 Goldman 1960 p 322 and note 22 The positioning is between the brows yet looks to be at the top of the head as seen on the example Goldman 1960 p 324 provides Plate 90 fig 1 adapted from GG 75 Goldman 1960 p 321 the top knob on the cauldron griffin is a straight forward carryover from its oriental counterparts a b c Benson 1960 p 63 Benson 1960 p 62 and Fig 5 griffin protome of stone from Nimrud Examples of GG no 14 30 Goldman 1960 p 321 wart like protuberances between the eyes natural property of the lion An example from the east is given as Fig 10 Lion griffin Middle Assyrian after Corpus 596 Benson 1960 p 64 a b Delaporte Louis Joseph 1920 Catalogue des cylindres cachets et pierres gravees de style oriental Musee du Louvre Paris Hachette p 49 Items S 366 Pl 44 fig 10 S 367 Pl 44 fig 11 S 368 Pl 45 fig 2 BnF copy The S indicates Susa expedition under the direction of J de Morgan 1897 1912 a b c d Frankfort 1936 1937 p 106 Image of Persian griffin granger com picture The Granger Collection Retrieved 26 May 2014 a b c Frankfort 1936 1937 p 107 a b c Fishbane Michael A 2005 Biblical Myth and Rabbinic Mythmaking Oxford University Press pp 45 46 ISBN 9780199284207 Worshiper pouring libation before goddess standing on lion griffin that draws chariot driven by weather god Morgan Library amp Museum 6 July 2017 Retrieved 13 April 2023 Fishbane s example from early 3rd millennium BC is a four wheeled chariot citing Pritchard 50 There is another four wheeled chariot which generally match the description held by the Morgan Library shelfmark Morgan Seal 220 dated to between 2340 and 2150 BC 51 Frankfort s example is a two wheeled chariot in the seal impression image shown on Fig 4 49 Goldman 1960 p 324 and pl 90 fig 15 Refn Frankfort classed it as a winged tailed and taloned dragon which spat fire a b Alvarez Mon 2011 p 320 Goldman 1960 p 324 and Pl 90 Fig 12 Luristan lion head which has the beak like feature Goldman 1960 p 324 Cf Frankfort 1936 1937 p 110 The immediate source of non Mesopotamian motives in Assyrian art is the kingdom of Mitan The griffin is as common in Mitannian Figs 21 22 as in Assyrian art and the question arises whether it was peculiar to the ephemereal kingdom or reached it from one of the sources Neva Elena 12 March 2008 Central Asian Jewelry and their Symbols in Ancient Time Artwis Archived from the original on 25 July 2014 who cites Pugachenkova G 1959 Grifon v drevnem iskusstve central noi Azii Grifon v drevnem iskusstve centralnoj Azii Griffin in the ancient art of Central Asia Sovetskya Arheologia 2 70 83 Fox R L 1973 Alexander the Great p 31 amp notes on p 506 Dartmouth College expedition to Greece image May 2009 Benson 1960 p 63 and Pl 2 3 monochrome photograph Ghirshman 1958 BibO 15 p 259 apud Goldman 1960 p 319 note 3 Griffin Buffaloah com Illustrated Dictionary of Egyptian Mythology Retrieved 2 January 2012 a b Quibell James Edward Green Frederick Wastie 1902 Hierakonpolis Plates of discoveries 1898 99 with Description of the site in detail Vol Part II B Quaritch p 41 and Pl XXVIII Leibovitch 1942 pp 184 185 and Fig 3 detail of griffin like beast citing Quibell amp Green 1902 65 Frankfort 1936 1937 p 110 also citing Quibell amp Green 1902 65 Leibovitch 1942 pp 184 185 Patch Diana 2012 Dawn of Egyptian Art Metropolitan Museum of Art pp 139 140 ISBN 978 0300179521 Retrieved 24 May 2014 Teissier Beatrice 1996 Egyptian Iconography on Syro Palestinian Cylinder Seals of the Middle Bronze Age Vandenhoeck amp Ruprecht pp 88 90 ISBN 978 3525538920 Retrieved 24 May 2014 Aruz Joan Benzel Kim Evans Jean M 2008 Beyond Babylon Art trade and diplomacy in the second millennium B C Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press p 137 ISBN 978 1588392954 Retrieved 24 May 2014 Teissier Beatrice 1996 Egyptian Iconography on Syro Palestinian Cylinder Seals of the Middle Bronze Age Vandenhoeck amp Ruprecht pp 5 6 ISBN 978 3525538920 Retrieved 24 May 2014 Frankfort 1936 1937 p 113 a b Benson 1960 p 58 Goldman 1960 p 326 the griffin headed bird appears in the orientalizing phase of seventh century B C Greek art Jantzen 1955 Goldman 1960 pp 319 320 Maxwell Hyslop 1956 p 156 viewed later examples to have been western copied from eastern originals cited by Goldman 1960 pp 319 320 as shall be iterated below Jantzen 1951 Die Bedeutung der Greifenprotomen aus dem Heraion von Samos Festschrift fur Hans Jantzen also Jantzen 1955 GG Cited by Goldman 1960 p 319 Benson 1960 p 58 and note 2 naming citing Maxwell Hyslop 1956 pp 150ff and Pierre Amandry 1958 Objets orientaux pp 73ff a b c d e Mayor amp Heaney 1993 p 42 Phillips 1955 pp 161 163 a b Mayor amp Heaney 1993 n9 Herodotus 1909 The History of Herodotus Vol 2 Translated by Rawlinson George New York Tandy Thomas III 16 IV 13 pp 146 192 Herodotus III 116 IV 13 84 Phillips 1955 p 161 a b c Aeschylus 1870 Watson John Selby ed Aischulou Prometheus desmōtes The Prometheus vinctus from the text of Dindorf vv 802 806 and endnotes pp 115 116 Aeschylus Prometheus Bound vv 805 806 and notes by Watson 87 a b Phillips 1955 p 163 Mayor amp Heaney 1993 n9 citing Bolton 1962 p 81 and Costello 1979 p 75 Mayor amp Heaney 1993 p 42 and n11 citing Pliny the Elder 10 70 136 7 2 10 a b Pliny the Elder 1855 The Natural History of Pliny translated by John Bostock Henry Thomas Riley H G Bohn VII 2 p 123 X 70 p 539 ISBN 9780598910769 Mayor amp Heaney 1993 pp 40 42 Pliny wrote Arimaspeans are always fighting for gold with the griffins winged animals whose appearance is well known The griffins toss up gold when they make their burrows and n11 citing 11 Pliny the Elder 10 70 136 7 2 10 The Life of Apollonius of Tyana Translated by F C Conybeare W Heinemann 1912 volume I book III Chapter XLVIII p 333 As to the gold which the griffins dig up there are rocks which are spotted with drops of gold as with sparks which this creature can quarry because of the strength of its beak For these animals do exist in India he said and are held in veneration as being sacred to the Sun and the Indian artists when they represent the Sun yoke four of them abreast to draw the images and in size and strength they resemble lions but having this advantage over them that they have wings they will attack them and they get the better of elephants and of dragons But they have no great power of flying not more than have birds of short flight for they are not winged as is proper with birds but the palms of their feet are webbed with red membranes such that they are able to revolve them and make a flight and fight in the air and the tiger alone is beyond their powers of attack because in swiftness it rivals the winds Philostratus amp Conybeare tr 1912 vol II book VI I p 5 And the griffins of the Indians and the ants of the Ethiopians though they are dissimilar in form yet from what we hear play similar parts for in each country they are according to the tales of poets the guardians of gold and devoted to the gold reefs of the two countries a b Pomponius Mela 1998 Romer Frank E ed Pomponius Mela s Description of the World University of Michigan Press Book 2 1 p 68 ISBN 0472084526 Claudius Aelianus 1832 Scanlan James J tr ed Aeliani de natura animalium libri xvii vol 1 Impensis Friderici Frommanni pp 53 54 Aelian De natura animaliumIV 27 Gryphem Indicum animal audio similiter quadrupedem ut leonem 97 Quoted in English translation by Mayor 2011 p 33 and excerpted with somewhat different phrasing in Mayor amp Heaney 1993 pp 44 45 Mayor amp Heaney 1993 n14 Aelian is the last literary text dealing with the griffin considered here after his account no new information about the gryps was added except for agate eggs Cf Riefstahl 1956 p 3 a b Kunzl Ernst in German 2016 13 Life on Earth and Death from Heaven The Golden Pectoral of the Scythian King from the Tolstaya Mogila Ukraine in Bintliff John Rutter N K eds Archaeology of Greece and Rome Image Text and Context Studies In Honour of Anthony Snodgrass Edinburgh University Press pp 331 332 ISBN 9781474417105 a b Hirst G M 1902 The Cults of Olbia Columbia University pp 259 260 Franks 2009 p 469 Franks 2009 p 469 n56 Fig 5 Franks 2009 p 469 n56 Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum 202 red figure cup kylix ca 400 300 BC 104 London British Museum E 543 red figure oinochoe 105 Red figure hydria with Apollo riding a griffin ca 380 360 B C Object number 2003 92 Princeton University Art Museum Retrieved 4 July 2023 Gualandri Isabella 2020 8 Sidonius Intersexuality In Kelly Gavin ed Edinburgh Companion to Sidonius Apollinaris Edinburgh University Press p 296 ISBN 9781474461702 Claudian VI Honorii 30 31 at si Phoebus adest et frenis grypha iugalem Riphaeo tripodas repetens detorsit ab axe 108 Riefstahl 1956 p 3 Westgate Ruth 2011 14 Party animals the imagery of status power and masculinity in Greek mosaics In Lambert S D ed Sociable Man Essays on Ancient Greek Social Behaviour in Honour of Nick Fisher Classical Press of Wales p 298 ISBN 9781910589212 Westgate 2011 p 298 111 citing Delplace 1980 pp 372 376 a b Herodotus amp Rawlinson tr 1909 URL 1 https www google com books edition The History of Herodotus N084AQAAMAAJ bsq Argive amp gbpv 1 amp pg PA284 2 IV 152 p 284 a b Herodotus 1921 Godley A D ed tr ed The History of Herodotus Vol 2 W Heinemann IV 152 2 355 ISBN 9780674991309 Towne Elana B 1994 13 Griffin protome In J Paul Getty Museum Cleveland Museum of Art eds A Passion for Antiquities Ancient Art from the Collection of Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman J Paul Getty Museum pp 50 51 ISBN 9780892362233 Mayor amp Heaney 1993 n4 citing Nigg 1982 p 51 Albertus Magnus 1987 Scanlan James J tr ed Man and the Beasts De Animalibus Books 22 26 Medieval amp Renaissance Texts amp Studies p 290 ISBN 9780866980326 Nigg 1999 p 144 a b Nigg 1999 p 121 McCulloch 1962 p 122 Isidore of Seville 1912 Brehaut Ernest tr ed An Encyclopedist of the Dark Ages Isidore of Seville Columbia Studies in the Social Sciences 48 New York Columbia University Press p 225 Griffin eaudrey com Servius s commentary on Virgil s eighth Eclogue 1 27 accord to McCulloch 1962 p 122 South 1987 p 89 citing Costello 1979 pp 73 76 a b Longfellow Henry Wadsworth 1886 The Writings of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow with Bibliographical and Critical Notes Vol 10 Cambridge MA Riverside Press pp 338 351 352 a b Millington 1858 p 277 a b c d Bedingfeld Henry Gwynn Jones Peter 1993 Heraldry Wigston Magna Books pp 80 81 ISBN 1 85422 433 6 Goblets in the shape of gryphon s claws or eggs were highly prized in the courts of medieval Europe and were usually made from antelope horns and ostrich eggs Mayor 2022 pp 43 48 Mayor 2022 pp 43 44 a b c Mayor 2022 p 44 a b c Mayor 2022 p 47 Millington 1858 pp 278 279 London Hugh Stanford 1956 Royal Beasts p 17 n5 apud Edwards 2005 p 225 n10 Gerald Leigh in his work on heraldry 1563 surmised from his claw that the original griffin must have been as bigge as two lyons 129 Lady Mary Wortley Montague 1716 observed a gilded prodigious claw referred to as a griffin s claw while touring the Danube 129 Mayor 2022 pp 42 43 47 48 a b Millington 1858 p 278 a b Mayor 2022 pp 44 45 Mayor 2022 p 46 White T H 1992 1954 The Book of Beasts Being a Translation From a Latin Bestiary of the Twelfth Century Stroud Alan Sutton pp 22 24 ISBN 978 0 7509 0206 9 McClanan A 2019 Illustrious Monsters Representations of Griffins on Byzantine Textiles Animals in Text and Textile Storytelling in the Medieval World Riggisberger Berichte 23 133 45 Hand Wayland D 2021 Magical Medicine The Folkloric Component of Medicine in the Folk Belief Custom and Ritual of the Peoples of Europe and America University of California Press p 298 ISBN 9780520306783 Lewis Thomas P 2021 Singing Bone The Pro Am Book of Music and Mythology Pro Am Music Resources pp 721 723 ISBN 9780912483511 Brewster Paul G 1953 The Two Sisters FF Communications 147 Helsinki Academia Scientiarum Fennica p 55 Endnotes volume 2 p 869 to Zipes Jack Russo Joseph eds 2009 79 The King of Naples Lu Re di Napuli The Collected Sicilian Folk and Fairy Tales of Giuseppe Pitre vol 1 amp 2 Routledge pp 348 349 ISBN 9781135861377 a b Oliver Stefan 1997 Introduction to Heraldry Quantum Books pp 44 69 ISBN 1861601433 Reprint David amp Charles 2002 von Volborth Carl Alexander 1981 Heraldry Customs Rules and Styles Poole New Orchard Editions pp 44 45 ISBN 978 1 85079 037 2 a b c Fox Davies Arthur 1909 A Complete Guide to Heraldry London T C and E C Jack pp 222 224 Male griffin depicted in Debrett s Peerage 1968 p 222 sinister supporter of Earl of Carrick Ireland J ames R obinson Planche 1852 Badges The Pursuivant of Arms or Heraldry Founded upon Facts London W N Wright Bookseller to the Queen 60 Pall Mall p 183 Arthur Fox Davies A Complete Guide to Heraldry T C and E C Jack London 1909 pp 231 232 Rose Carol 2001 Giants Monsters and Dragons an Encyclopedia of Folklore Legend and Myth New York W W Norton amp Company p 279 ISBN 0393322114 OCLC 48798119 Vinycomb John 1906 Fictitious and Symbolic Creatures in Art With Special Reference to Their Use In British Heraldry London Chapman and Hall p 162 The griffon of Pisa Quantara Archived from the original on 26 March 2012 Retrieved 15 May 2011 Hoffman 318 The City Arms City of London Corporation hosted by webarchive The Essential Rumi translated from Persian by Coleman Barks p 257 The Travels of Sir John Mandeville Chapter XXIX Macmillan and Co edition 1900 Edwards 2005 p 100 Mayor Adrienne November December 1994 Guardians of The Gold Archaeology Magazine 47 6 53 59 JSTOR 41766590 Mayor 2011 pp xvii xxv 49 BBC Four television program Dinosaurs Myths and Monsters 10 and 13 December 2011 Mayor 1994 p 58 Mayor 2011 pp 49 71 Mark Witton Why Protoceratops Almost Certainly Wasn t The Inspiration For Griffin Legend Philadelphia Museum of Art Giving Giving to the Museum Specialty License Plates Philamuseum org Retrieved on 2 January 2012 Glassteelandstone com Archived 11 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine Philadelphia Museum of Art Benjamin Franklin Parkway Philadelphia Pennsylvania United States Glass Steel and Stone O Grypas to my8iko teras ginetai to symbolo ths polhs toy Hrakleioy Cretalive News 22 March 2021 Trinity ox ac uk Trinity ox ac uk Retrieved on 2 January 2012 VU university Amsterdam About the griffin Retrieved on 5 November 2013 The New Olde Reed Almanac continued Griffin Reed College Sarah Lawrence Gryphons Gogryphons com Retrieved on 23 October 2013 Traditions Big Ten Purdue edu Retrieved on 2 January 2012 Pantless Man Bird To Lead William and Mary Into Battle Deadspin com 7 April 2010 Retrieved on 2 January 2012 W amp M welcomes newest member of the Tribe Wm edu 8 April 2010 Retrieved on 2 January 2012 Family Guy What s your name retrieved 2 January 2023 but my parents were unwilling to secure the necessary eagle eggs and lion semen retrieved 2 January 2023 GA ASI Introduces Griffin Eye Manned ISR System Archived 11 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine GA ASI com 20 July 2010 Retrieved on 2 January 2012 BibliographyAlvarez Mon Javier 2011 Alvarez Mon Javier Garrison Mark B eds The Golden Griffin from Arjan Winona Lake Indiana Eisenbrauns imprint of Penn State University Press pp 299 373 ISBN 9781575066127 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a work ignored help Benson J L 1960 Unpublished Griffin Protomes in American Collections Antike Kunst 3 2 58 70 JSTOR 41318521 Bolton J D P 1962 Aristeas of Proconnesus Clarendon Press Costello Peter 1979 The Magic Zoo New York Sphere Books ISBN 9780722125533 Delplace Christiane 1980 Le griffon de l archaisme a l epoque imperiale Etude iconographique et essai d interpretation symbolique in French Brussels Institut historique belge de Rome Edwards Karen L 2005 Milton and the Natural World Science and Poetry in Paradise Lost Cambridge University Press ISBN 9780521017480 Frankfort Henri 1936 1937 Notes on the Cretan Griffin The Annual of the British School at Athens 37 106 122 doi 10 1017 S0068245400018025 JSTOR 30096666 S2CID 162323614 Franks Hallie Malcolm 2009 Hunting the Eschata An Imagined Persian Empire on the Lekythos of Xenophantos PDF Hesperia 78 4 455 480 doi 10 2972 hesp 78 4 455 S2CID 191569662 Ghirshman Roman 1964c The Arts of Ancient Iran From Its Origins to the Time of Alexander the Great Golden Press Goldman Bernard October 1960 The Development of the Lion Griffin American Journal of Archaeology 64 4 319 328 doi 10 2307 501330 JSTOR 501330 Jantzen Ulf in German 1955 Griechische Greifenkessel Berlin a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link abbreviated GG Leibovitch J 1942 Quelques elements de la decoration egyptienne sous le Nouvel Empire Le Griffon Bulletin de l institut d Egypte in French 25 183 203 Maxwell Hyslop K R Autumn 1956 Urartian Bronzes in Etruscan Tombs Iraq 18 2 150 167 doi 10 2307 4199609 JSTOR 419960 S2CID 163723570 Mayor Adrienne 2011 2000 The First Fossil Hunters Dinosaurs Mammoths and Myth in Greek and Roman Times Princeton University Press ISBN 978 0691150130 Mayor Adrienne Heaney Michael 1993 Griffins and Arimaspeans Folklore 104 1 2 40 66 doi 10 1080 0015587X 1993 9715853 JSTOR 1260795 Mayor Adrienne 2022 Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws Princeton University Press ISBN 0691211183 McCulloch Florence 1962 1960 Mediaeval Latin and French Bestiaries North Carolina Studies in Romance Languages and Literatures 33 revised ed Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press pp 122 123 ISBN 9780807890332 Reprint C N Potter 1976 Millington Ellen J 1858 Heraldry in History Poetry and Romance Chapman and Hall Nigg Joe 1982 The Book of Gryphons A History of the Most Majestic of All Mythical Creatures Cambridge Massachusetts Applewood Books ISBN 978 0918222374 1999 The Book of Fabulous Beasts A Treasury of Writings from Ancient Times to the Present Oxford University Press ISBN 9780195095616 Isidore s entries contain traditional folkloric material but without Christian allegory Papalexandrou Nassos 2021 Bronze Monsters and the Cultures of Wonder Griffin Cauldrons in the Preclassical Mediterranean University of Texas Press ISBN 9781477323632 Phillips E D 1955 The Legend of Aristeas Fact and Fancy in Early Greek Notions of East Russia Siberia and Inner Asia Artibus Asiae 18 2 161 177 doi 10 2307 3248792 JSTOR 3248792 Riefstahl Elizabeth Spring 1956 Nemesis and the Wheel of Fate Brooklyn Museum Bulletin 17 3 1 7 JSTOR 26458409 South Malcolm 1987 Mythical and Fabulous Creatures A Source Book and Research Bloomsbury Academic ISBN 9780313243387 Taheri Sadreddin 2013 Gopat and Shirdal in the Ancient Middle East PDF Honar Ha Ye Ziba Honar Ha Ye Tajassomi نشریه هنرهای زیبا هنرهای تجسمی in Persian 17 4 13 22 doi 10 22059 jfava 2013 30063 Further readingWild F Gryps Greif Gryphon Griffon Eine sprach kultur und stoffgeschichtliche Studie Wien 1963 Oesterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Philologisch historische Klasse Sitzungberichte 241 Bisi Anna Maria Il grifone Storia di un motivo iconografico nell antico Oriente mediterraneo Rome Universita 1965 External links nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Griffins https www amnh org exhibitions mythic creatures land griffin bones Griffin Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol XI 9th ed 1880 p 195 The Gryphon Pages a repository of griffin lore and information The Medieval Bestiary Griffin Four Footed Winged Raptors Gryphons of Greece Europe and the Near East source texts in Greek Hebrew and Old English with new English translations Haupt Ryan 25 November 2014 Skeptoid 442 Griffins Skeptoid Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Griffin amp oldid 1213087470, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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