The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

: , ''gryps'';

Classical Latin Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a literary standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It was used from 75 BC to the 3rd century AD, when it developed into Late Latin. In some later periods ...

: ''grȳps'' or ''grȳpus'';

Late Late may refer to: * LATE, an acronym which could stand for: ** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia ** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law ** Local average treatment effect, ...

and

Medieval Latin Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. In this region it served as the primary written language, though local languages were also written to varying degrees. Latin functioned ...

: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.;

Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...

: ''griffon'') is a

legendary creature A legendary creature (also mythical or mythological creature) is a type of fictional entity, typically a hybrid, that has not been proven and that is described in folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses ...

with the body, tail, and back legs of a

lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...

; the head and wings of an

eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...

with it's talons on the front legs.

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. In Greek and Roman texts, griffins and

Arimaspi The Arimaspi (also Arimaspians, Arimaspos, and Arimaspoi; grc, Ἀριμασπός, Ἀριμασποί) were a legendary tribe of one-eyed people of northern Scythia who lived in the foothills of the Riphean Mountains, variously identified with ...

ans were associated with gold deposits of Central Asia. The earliest classical writings derive from

Aristeas Aristeas ( el, Ἀριστέας) was a semi-legendary Greek poet and miracle-worker, a native of Proconnesus in Asia Minor, active ca. 7th century BC. The Suda claims that, whenever he wished, his soul could leave his body and return again. ...

(7th cent. BC), preserved by

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known f ...

and

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...

(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 Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' ...

(1st century) was the first to explicitly state that griffins were winged and long eared. But

Apollonius of Tyana Apollonius of Tyana ( grc, Ἀπολλώνιος ὁ Τυανεύς; c. 3 BC – c. 97 AD) was a Greek Neopythagorean philosopher from the town of Tyana in the Roman province of Cappadocia in Anatolia. He is the subject of ''L ...

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 Agate () is a common rock formation, consisting of chalcedony and quartz as its primary components, with a wide variety of colors. Agates are primarily formed within volcanic and metamorphic rocks. The ornamental use of agate was common in Ancie ...

stone among the eggs in their nest. Pliny placed the griffins in Æthiopia, and

Ctesias Ctesias (; grc-gre, Κτησίας; fl. fifth century BC), also known as Ctesias of Cnidus, was a Greek physician and historian from the town of Cnidus in Caria, then part of the Achaemenid Empire. Historical events Ctesias, who lived in the fi ...

(5th century BC) in greater

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Scholars have observed that legends about the

gold-digging ant The gold-digging ant is a mythical insect described in classical and medieval bestiaries. They were dog- or fox-sized ants that dug up gold in sandy areas. Some versions of the ''Physiologus'' said they came from Ethiopia, while Herodotus claimed ...

s of India may have contaminated griffin lore. In the Christian era,

Isidore of Seville Isidore of Seville ( la, Isidorus Hispalensis; c. 560 – 4 April 636) was a Spanish scholar, theologian, and archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the words of 19th-century historian Montalembert, as "the last scholar of ...

(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

alt= Griffin depicted on obverse side of coin. Silver tetradrachm. Greek city state of Abdera, Thrace ( 450–430BC)., Griffin depicted on obverse side of coin. The derivation of this word remains uncertain. It could be related to the Greek word (grypos), meaning 'curved', or 'hooked'. Greek (gryph) from 'hook-nosed' is suggested. It could also have been an Anatolian loan word derived from a Semitic language; compare the Hebrew word for

cherub A cherub (; plural cherubim; he, כְּרוּב ''kərūḇ'', pl. ''kərūḇīm'', likely borrowed from a derived form of akk, 𒅗𒊏𒁍 ''karabu'' "to bless" such as ''karibu'', "one who blesses", a name for the lamassu) is one of the u ...

(''kerúv'').

Persian names

In the modern

Persian language Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and ...

, the griffin has come to be called ''shirdal'' ( fa, ), meaning 'lion-eagle'. However, the practice of referring to ancient Iranian griffin objects or monuments as ''shirdal'', is not followed by other current archaeological scholarship (e.g , here). Possible Old or Middle Iranian names for the creature have been discussed.

Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Per ...

''Sēnmurw'' in

Sasanian The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...

culture was a fabulous composite creature, and Russian archaeologist argued for the possibility that the application of this term may extend to the griffin. The term ''Sēnmurw'' is recognized as the etymological ancestor of ''

simurgh Simurgh (; fa, سیمرغ, also spelled ''simorgh, simorg'', ''simurg'', ''simoorg, simorq'' or ''simourv'') is a benevolent, mythical bird in Persian mythology and literature. It is sometimes equated with other mythological birds such as the ...

'', which is generally regarded as a mythological bird (rather than a composite) in later medieval Persian literature, though some argue that this bird may have originated from the Mesopotamian lion-griffin. There is also the

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

term ''Paskuč'' ( hy, պասկուչ) that had been used to translate Greek ''gryp'' 'griffin' in the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...

, which H. P. Schmidt characterized as the counterpart of the simurgh. However, the cognate term ''Baškuč'' (glossed as 'griffin') also occurs in Middle Persian, attested in the

Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic on ...

cosmological text ''

Bundahishn ''Bundahishn'' (Avestan: , "Primal Creation") is the name traditionally given to an encyclopedic collection of Zoroastrian cosmogony and cosmology written in Book Pahlavi. The original name of the work is not known. Although the ''Bundahishn'' d ...

'' XXIV (supposedly distinguishable from ''Sēnmurw'' which also appears in the same text). Middle Persian ''Paškuč'' is also attested in

Manichaean Manichaeism (; in New Persian ; ) is a former major religionR. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 founded in the 3rd century AD by the Parthian Empire, Parthian ...

magical texts (Manichaean Middle Persian: ''pškwc''), and this must have meant a "griffin or a monster like a griffin" according to

W. B. Henning Walter Bruno Henning (August 26, 1908 – January 8, 1967) was a German scholar of Middle Iranian languages and literature, especially of the corpus discovered by the Turpan expeditions of the early 20th century. __TOC__ Biography Walter Henning ...

. Deir El Bersha

Egyptian names

The griffin was given names which were descriptive epithets, such as or ''tesh-tesh'' meaning "Tearer in-pieces inscribed on a griffin image found in a tomb at

Deir El Bersha Deir El Bersha ( ar, دير البرشا; also written as Dayr al-Barsha, Deir el-Bersheh) is a Coptic village in Middle Egypt, in the Minya Governorate. It is located on the east bank of the Nile to the south of Antinoöpolis and almost opposite ...

; and / "fiery one", attested at

Beni Hasan Beni Hasan (also written as Bani Hasan, or also Beni-Hassan) ( ar, بني حسن) is an ancient Egyptian cemetery. It is located approximately to the south of modern-day Minya in the region known as Middle Egypt, the area between Asyut and Mem ...

. The descriptive epithet "Tearer" is not uniquely applied to the griffin beast, and () has also been used to denote the god

Osiris Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wsjr'', cop, ⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲉ , ; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎𐤓, romanized: ʾsr) is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was ...

elsewhere.

Form

Bronzen griffioen ForumHadriani 198894 RMO Leiden

Most statuary representations of griffins depict them with bird-like forelegs and

talons A claw is a curved, pointed appendage found at the end of a toe or finger in most amniotes (mammals, reptiles, birds). Some invertebrates such as beetles and spiders have somewhat similar fine, hooked structures at the end of the leg or tarsus ...

, 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

ear An ear is the organ that enables hearing and, in mammals, body balance using the vestibular system. In mammals, the ear is usually described as having three parts—the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear consists of ...

s; these are sometimes described as the lion's ears, but are often elongated (more like a

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million y ...

's), and are sometimes feathered.

Cauldron figurines

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

Tendrils

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. The tendril motif emerged at the beginning of the first millennium, BC., in various parts of the Orient. The "double spiral of hair running downwards from the base of the ear" is said to be a hallmark of Iranian (Uratrian) art. The

Etruscan __NOTOC__ Etruscan may refer to: Ancient civilization *The Etruscan language, an extinct language in ancient Italy *Something derived from or related to the Etruscan civilization **Etruscan architecture **Etruscan art **Etruscan cities **Etruscan ...

cauldron-griffins (e.g., from , figure right) also bear the "curled tresses" that are the signature of Uratrian workmanship. 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.

Top-knob

One prominent characteristic of the cauldron griffins is the "top-knob between the brows" (seemingly situated at the top of the head). The top-knob feature has clear oriental origins. Jack Leonard Benson says these appendages were "topknots" subsequently rendered as "knobs" in later development of the cauldron Griffins. Benson's emphasis is that the Greeks attached a stylized "anorganic" topknot or an "inorganic" plug on the griffin's head (due to lack of information), while in contrast, a known oriental example (stone protomes from

Nimrud Nimrud (; syr, ܢܢܡܪܕ ar, النمرود) is an ancient Assyrian city located in Iraq, south of the city of Mosul, and south of the village of Selamiyah ( ar, السلامية), in the Nineveh Plains in Upper Mesopotamia. It was a majo ...

) is simple but more "plausible" (naturalistic), resembling a forelock.

Warts

A cluster of "warts" between the eyes are also mentioned. One conjecture is that these derive from the bumps (furrows) on a lion's snout. Another view regards the wart as deriving from the bumpy

cockscomb A comb is a fleshy growth or crest on the top of the head of some gallinaceous birds, such as domestic chickens. The alternative name cockscomb (with several spelling variations) reflects the fact that combs are generally larger on cock birds t ...

on a rooster or other such fowls.

Art in antiquity

Mesopotamia

Griffins were depicted on

cylinder seals A cylinder seal is a small round cylinder, typically about one inch (2 to 3 cm) in length, engraved with written characters or figurative scenes or both, used in ancient times to roll an impression onto a two-dimensional surface, generally ...

in Mesopotamia 3000 BC, perhaps as early as the

Uruk period The Uruk period (ca. 4000 to 3100 BC; also known as Protoliterate period) existed from the protohistoric Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age period in the history of Mesopotamia, after the Ubaid period and before the Jemdet Nasr period. Named after ...

(4000–3100BC) and subsequent

Proto-Elamite The Proto-Elamite period, also known as Susa III, is a chronological era in the ancient history of the area of Elam, dating from . In archaeological terms this corresponds to the late Banesh period. Proto-Elamite sites are recognized as the oldest ...

(

Jemdet Nasr Jemdet Nasr ( ar, جمدة نصر) is a tell or settlement mound in Babil Governorate (Iraq) that is best known as the eponymous type site for the Jemdet Nasr period (3100–2900 BC), and was one of the oldest Sumerian cities. The site was first ...

) period. An example of a winged lion with beaks, unearthed in

Susa Susa ( ; Middle elx, 𒀸𒋗𒊺𒂗, translit=Šušen; Middle and Neo- elx, 𒋢𒋢𒌦, translit=Šušun; Neo-Elamite and Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼𒀭, translit=Šušán; Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼, translit=Šušá; fa, شوش ...

(cf. fig. right) dates to the 4th millenium B.C., and is a unique example of a griffin with a male lion's mane. However, this monster then ceased to continue to be expressed after the Elamite culture. What the

Sumerians Sumer () is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. It is one of the cradles of c ...

of the Early Dynastic period portrayed instead were winged lions, and the lion-headed eagle ( Imdugud). In the

Akkadian Empire The Akkadian Empire () was the first ancient empire of Mesopotamia after the long-lived civilization of Sumer. It was centered in the city of Akkad (city), Akkad () and its surrounding region. The empire united Akkadian language, Akkadian and ...

that succeeded Sumer, early examples (from early 3rd millenium BC) of lion-griffins appeared on cylinder seals, shown pulling the chariots for its rider, the weather god. The lion-griffin on Akkadian seals are also shown as fire-belching, and shaggy (at the neck) in particular examples.{{sfnp, Frankfort, 1936–1937, p=107 The bronzeworks of Luristan, the North and North West region of Iran in the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

, include examples of

Achaemenid art The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest emp ...

depicting both the "bird-griffin" and "lion-griffin" designs, such as are found on horse-bits.{{sfnp, Álvarez-Mon, 2011, p=320{{sfnp, Taheri, 2013

Bernard Goldman Bernard Goldman (1922 – 2006) was an art historian and archeologist specializing in ancient Near Eastern art and archeology. He was the author of several books including ''The Sacred Portal'', ''Reading and Writing in the Arts'', and ''The Anci ...

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". The Luristan griffins resemble and perhaps are descended from Assyrian creatures, possibly influenced by Mitannian animals,{{sfnp, Goldman, 1960, p=324 or perhaps there had been parallel development in both Assyrian and

Elamite Elamite, also known as Hatamtite and formerly as Susian, is an extinct language that was spoken by the ancient Elamites. It was used in what is now southwestern Iran from 2600 BC to 330 BC. Elamite works disappear from the archeological record ...

cultures.{{sfnp, Álvarez-Mon, 2011, p=320

Iran

Griffin images appeared in art of the

Achaemenian The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, wikt:𐎧𐏁𐏂𐎶, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an History of Iran#Classical antiquity, ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Bas ...

Persian Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, wikt:𐎧𐏁𐏂𐎶, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an History of Iran#Classical antiquity, ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Bas ...

. Russian jewelry historian Elena Neva maintained that the Achaemenids considered the griffin "a protector from evil, witchcraft, and secret slander", 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 Pella ( el, Πέλλα) is an ancient city located in Central Macedonia, Greece. It is best-known for serving as the capital city of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon, and was the birthplace of Alexander the Great. On site of the ancient cit ...

, from the 4th century BC, perhaps serving as an emblem of the kingdom of Macedon or a personal emblem of

Antipater Antipater (; grc, , translit=Antipatros, lit=like the father; c. 400 BC319 BC) was a Macedonian general and statesman under the subsequent kingships of Philip II of Macedon and his son, Alexander the Great. In the wake of the collaps ...

, one of

Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

's successors. An golden frontal half of a griffin from the

Ziwiye hoard The Ziwiye hoard is a treasure hoard containing gold, silver, and ivory objects, also including a few gold pieces with the shape of human face , that was uncovered on in Ziwiyeh plat near Saqqez city in Kurdistan Province, Iran, in 1947. Prove ...

(near

Saqqez Saqqez ( ; fa, سقز ; ), also known as Saghez, Saqez, Saqqiz, Saqiz, and Sakīz, is the capital city of Saqqez County in Kurdistan Province, in northwestern Iran. According to the 2016 census, its population was 165,258. Etymology The nam ...

city) in Kurdistan Province, Iran resembles the western protomes in style.{{efn, Ghirshman (and others, cf. {{harvp, Maxwell-Hyslop, 1956, p=160, citing

André Godard André Godard (21 January 1881 – 31 July 1965) was an archaeologist, architect and historian of French and Middle Eastern Art. He served as the director of the Iranian Archeological Service for many years. Life Godard was born in Chaumont. A ...

.) thought the Ziwiye griffin was a protome to a lost cauldron. Goldman thinks this unlikely, as the griffin is posed in ''couchant'' position, and gold is too soft a metal. They were of

Urartian Urartian or Vannic is an extinct Hurro-Urartian language which was spoken by the inhabitants of the ancient kingdom of Urartu (''Biaini'' or ''Biainili'' in Urartian), which was centered on the region around Lake Van and had its capital, Tushpa, ...

workmanship (neither Assyrian or Scythian),{{Refn, group="lower-alpha", Godard, André (1950), "Le trésor de Ziwiye" at Fig. 30, considered the object a Scythinan import. Cited by {{harvp, Maxwell-Hyslop, 1956, p=160.{{sfnp, Ghirshman, 1964c, p=108 though the hoard itself may have represented a Scythian burial. The griffin is described as having a "

visor A visor (also spelled vizor) is a surface that protects the eyes, such as shading them from the sun or other bright light or protecting them from objects. Nowadays many visors are transparent, but before strong transparent substances such a ...

" (i.e., beaks) made by Urartian craftsmen, similar to what is found on Greek protomes.{{sfnp, Ghirshman, 1964c, p=108

Egypt

Representations of griffin-like hybrids with four legs and a beaked head appeared in

Ancient Egyptian art Ancient Egyptian art refers to art produced in ancient Egypt between the 6th millennium BC and the 4th century AD, spanning from Prehistoric Egypt until the Christianization of Roman Egypt. It includes paintings, sculptu ...

dating back to before 3000 BC. The oldest known depiction of a griffin-like animal in Egypt appears as a relief carving on

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

on the

cosmetic palette Cosmetic palettes are archaeological Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, originally used in predynastic Egypt, predynastic ancient Egypt, Egypt to grind and apply ingredients for facial or body cosmetics. The decorative palettes of the late 4th mill ...

from

Hierakonpolis Nekhen ( egy, nḫn, ); in grc, Ἱεράκων πόλις Hierakonpolis ( either: City of the Hawk, or City of the Falcon, a reference to Horus or ''Hierakōn polis'' "Hawk City" in arz, الكوم الأحمر, el-Kōm el-Aḥmar, lit=the ...

,{{Refn, {{harvp, Leibovitch, 1942, pp=184–185 and Fig 3 (detail of griffin-like beast), citing {{harvp, Quibell, Green, 1902 the so-called "Two Dog Palette"{{Refn, {{harvp, Frankfort, 1936–1937, p=110, also citing {{harvp, Quibell, Green, 1902 dated to the Early Dynastic Period,{{sfnp, Leibovitch, 1942, pp=184–185 {{circa, 3300–3100 BC.

Near East elsewhere

Griffin-type creatures combining raptor heads and mammalian bodies were depicted in the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, and

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

during the Middle

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

, dated at about 1950–1550 BC.

Greece

{{also, #Divine creature Tripode

The griffin appeared in the art of

ancient Crete The history of Crete goes back to the 7th millennium BC, preceding the ancient Minoan civilization by more than four millennia. The palace-based Minoan civilization was the first civilization in Europe. After the Minoan civilization was devastat ...

in the MM III Period (1650–1600 BC) in

Minoan chronology The Minoan chronology dating system is a measure of the phases of the Minoan civilization. Initially established as a relative dating system by English archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans between 1900 and 1903 based on his analysis of Minoan pottery du ...

, found on sealings from

Zakro Zakros ( el, Ζάκρος; Linear B: zakoro) is a site on the eastern coast of the island of Crete, Greece, containing ruins from the Minoan civilization. The site is often known to archaeologists as Zakro or Kato Zakro. It is believed to have been ...

and miniature frescos dated to this period.{{sfnp, Frankfort, 1936–1937, p=113 One early example of griffin-types in

Minoan art Minoan art is the art produced by the Bronze Age Aegean Minoan civilization from about 3000 to 1100 BC, though the most extensive and finest survivals come from approximately 2300 to 1400 BC. It forms part of the wider grouping of Aegean art, ...

occurs in the 15th century BC

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

es of the

Throne Room A throne room or throne hall is the room, often rather a hall, in the official residence of the crown, either a palace or a fortified castle, where the throne of a senior figure (usually a monarch) is set up with elaborate pomp—usually raised, ...

of the

Palace of

Knossos Knossos (also Cnossos, both pronounced ; grc, Κνωσός, Knōsós, ; Linear B: ''Ko-no-so'') is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and has been called Europe's oldest city. Settled as early as the Neolithic period, the na ...

, as restored by Sir

Arthur Evans Sir Arthur John Evans (8 July 1851 – 11 July 1941) was a British archaeologist and pioneer in the study of Aegean civilization in the Bronze Age. He is most famous for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete. Based on t ...

. The griffin became a fixture of Aegean culture since the

Late Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

,{{sfnp, Benson, 1960, p=58 but the griffin did not appear in Greek art until about 700 BC,{{sfnp, Ghirshman, 1964c, p=108 or rather, it was "rediscovered" as artistic motif in the 8th to 7th centuries BC, adapting the style of griffin current in

Neo-Hittite The states that are called Syro-Hittite, Neo-Hittite (in older literature), or Luwian-Aramean (in modern scholarly works), were Luwian and Aramean regional polities of the Iron Age, situated in southeastern parts of modern Turkey and northwestern ...

art.{{sfnp, Benson, 1960, p=58 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

of Proconnesus. A number of bronze griffin protomes on cauldrons have been unearthed in Greece (on

Samos Samos (, also ; el, Σάμος ) is a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of western Turkey, from which it is separated by the -wide Mycale Strait. It is also a separate ...

, and at

Olympia The name Olympia may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Olympia'' (1938 film), by Leni Riefenstahl, documenting the Berlin-hosted Olympic Games * ''Olympia'' (1998 film), about a Mexican soap opera star who pursues a career as an athlet ...

, etc., cf. fig. right).{{sfnp, Jantzen, 1955 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).{{sfnp, Goldman, 1960, pp=319–320 It has thus been controversially argued (by {{interlanguage link, Ulf Jantzen, de) that these attachments had always since the earliest times been crafted by Greek workshops,{{Refn, group="lower-alpha", That later griffin protomes are Greek-made is "without question" ({{harvp, Goldman, 1960, p=321). added to the plain cauldrons imported from the Near East.{{Refn, group="lower-alpha", 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. Detractors (notably K. R. Maxwell-Hyslop) believe that (early examples of) the griffin-ornamented cauldron, in its entirely, were crafted in the East, though excavated finds from the Orient are scarce.

Central Asia

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

, the griffin image was included in Scythian "animal style" artifacts of the 6th–4th centuries BC, but no writings explain their meaning.{{citation needed, date=April 2023 The

Golden Pectoral from Tovsta Mohyla The Golden Pectoral from Tovsta Mohyla is an ancient Scythian treasure discovered in a burial kurgan at a site called Tovsta Mohyla in 1971 by the Ukrainian archaeologist Borys Mozolevskyi. The Tovsta Mohyla burial mound, meaning fat barrow, is ...

, interred in Scythian king's burial site, was commissioned to Greek

goldsmiths A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold. In German, the Goldsmith family name is written Goldschmidt. Goldsmith may also refer to: Places * Goldsmith, Indiana, United States * Goldsmith, New York, United States, a ha ...

, who engraved the image of a griffin attacking a horse. Griffins are more typically shown attacking bulls and deer in Greek art, and this combination is rare. But horse-riders (Arimaspians) were responsible for stealing griffin gold according to tradition, and the craftsman may have seen fit to displace the horse-rider with horse in artistic depiction. Danam letters on Sanchi inscription

Ancient parallels

Several ancient mythological creatures are similar to the griffin. These include the

Lamassu ''Lama'', ''Lamma'', or ''Lamassu'' (Cuneiform: , ; Sumerian: lammař; later in Akkadian: ''lamassu''; sometimes called a ''lamassus'') is an Assyrian protective deity. Initially depicted as a goddess in Sumerian times, when it was called ''La ...

, an

Assyrian Assyrian may refer to: * Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia. * Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire. ** Early Assyrian Period ** Old Assyrian Period ** Middle Assyrian Empire ** Neo-Assyrian Empire * Assyrian ...

protective deity, often depicted with a bull or lion's body, eagle's wings, and human's head. Sumerian and

Akkadian mythology Akkadian literature is the ancient literature written in the Akkadian language (Assyrian and Babylonian dialects) in Mesopotamia (Assyria and Babylonia) during the period spanning the Middle Bronze Age to the Iron Age (roughly the 23rd to 6th ce ...

feature the demon

Anzu Anzu may refer to: *Anzû, a divine storm-bird in several Mesopotamian religions * ''Anzu'' (dinosaur), a genus of theropod dinosaur containing the species ''Anzu wyliei'' As a given name is a Japanese given name for females. Kyoko is an altern ...

, half man and half bird, associated with the chief sky god

Enlil Enlil, , "Lord f theWind" later known as Elil, is an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with wind, air, earth, and storms. He is first attested as the chief deity of the Sumerian pantheon, but he was later worshipped by the Akkadians, Bab ...

. This was a divine storm-bird linked with the southern wind and the thunder clouds.

Jewish mythology Jewish mythology is the body of myths associated with Judaism. Elements of Jewish mythology have had a profound influence on Christian mythology and on Islamic mythology, as well as on world culture in general. Christian mythology directly inhe ...

speaks of the

Ziz ZIZ Broadcasting Corporation commonly referred to as ZIZ, is the government-owned radio and (now cable television, cable-only) television service of Saint Kitts and Nevis. Its radio programming is broadcast on 555 AM, 95.9 & 96.1 FM, whilst th ...

, which resembles Anzu, as well as the ancient Greek

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

. The Bible mentions the Ziz in Psalms 50:11. This is also similar to a

. The cherub, or sphinx, was very popular in

Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...

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

Minoan Genius The Minoan Genius is a fantastic mythological creature that was common in the Minoan art of the Bronze Age Minoan civilization in ancient Crete. It is portrayed sometimes with the head of a lion, or of hippopotamus, or of other animals. It is m ...

. In the

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

religion,

Garuda Garuda (Sanskrit: ; Pāli: ; Vedic Sanskrit: गरुळ Garuḷa) is a Hindu demigod and divine creature mentioned in the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain faiths. He is primarily depicted as the mount (''vahana'') of the Hindu god Vishnu. Garuda is a ...

is a large bird-like creature that serves as a

mount Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ...

(''vahana'') of the deity

Vishnu Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" within t ...

. It is also the name for the constellation Aquila.

Classical accounts

Herodotus, etc.

Local lore on the griffin was gathered by

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.{{sfnp, Mayor, Heaney, 1993, p=42{{sfnp, Phillips, 1955, pp=161–163 Herodotus explains (via Aristeas) that the gold-guarding griffins supposedly dwelled further north from the one-eyed

people{{Refn, group="lower-alpha", But "Heordotus doubted that Arimaspeans were monocular".{{sfnp, Mayor, Heaney, 1993, loc=n9 who robbed the gold from the fabulous creatures. Aristeas is said to have been informed through the

Issedones The Issedones (Ἰσσηδόνες) were an ancient people of Central Asia at the end of the trade route leading north-east from Scythia, described in the lost ''Arimaspeia'' of Aristeas, by Herodotus in his ''History'' (IV.16-25) and by Ptolemy in ...

people neighboring region to the Arimaspi, in the northern extremes (of Central Asia).{{Refn, Herodotus III.116, IV.13.{{sfnp, Phillips, 1955, p=161 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.{{Refn, Aeschylus, ''Prometheus Bound'' vv. 805–806, and notes by Watson. Aeschylus likened the griffins to "unbarking dogs of Zeus"{{sfnp, Phillips, 1955, p=163{{Refn, group="lower-alpha", To distinguish from the (screaming)

harpies In Greek mythology and Roman mythology, a harpy (plural harpies, , ; lat, harpȳia) is a half-human and half-bird personification of storm winds. They feature in Homeric poems. Descriptions They were generally depicted as birds with the head ...

, referred as "dogs of Zeus" (by

Apollonius of Rhodes Apollonius of Rhodes ( grc, Ἀπολλώνιος Ῥόδιος ''Apollṓnios Rhódios''; la, Apollonius Rhodius; fl. first half of 3rd century BC) was an ancient Greek author, best known for the ''Argonautica'', an epic poem about Jason and t ...

, II.289). That they are called dogs or hounds here has led to the conjecture that Aeschylus considered them wingless or flightless.{{sfnp, Mayor, Heaney, 1993, p=42{{Refn, group="lower-alpha", Mayor's reasoning being that Aeschylus elsewhere refers to eagles as "winged dogs of Zeus".{{sfnp, Mayor, Heaney, 1993, p=42 However this seems contradictory to Apollonius being able to refer to winged harpies as "Zeus' dogs", as noted previously.

Gryphons of India and gold-digging ants

Whereas

, had located the griffins in India, and more explicitly classed them as beaked, four-legged birds.{{sfnp, Mayor, Heaney, 1993, p=42 Herodotus also mentions elsewhere that there are gold-collecting ants in

Kashmir Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...

, India, and this has been interpreted by modern scholars as "doublets or garbled versions" of the lore of gold-hoarding griffins.{{Refn, {{harvp, Mayor, Heaney, 1993, loc=n9, citing {{harvp, Bolton, 1962, p=81 and {{harvp, Costello, 1979, p=75. It appears that the accounts of griffins given by Pliny had been admixed with the lore of these gold-guarding ants of India,{{sfnp, Phillips, 1955, p=163 and later

Aelian Aelian or Aelianus may refer to: * Aelianus Tacticus, Greek military writer of the 2nd century, who lived in Rome * Casperius Aelianus, Praetorian Prefect, executed by Trajan * Claudius Aelianus, Roman writer, teacher and historian of the 3rd centu ...

also inserted attributes of the ant into his description of griffins.{{sfnp, Mayor, Heaney, 1993, loc=n9

Pliny and later

Later,

became the first to explicitly state the griffins has having wings and long ears.{{Refn, group="lower-alpha", The word for "eared" in the text is {{lang, la, aurita in declined form. {{L&S, auritus, ref gives the definition: "Furnished with ears (acc. to auris, l.), having long or large ears". In one of the two passages, Pliny also located the "griffons" in Æthiopia. According to

Adrienne Mayor Adrienne Mayor (born 1946) is a historian of ancient science and a classical folklorist. Mayor specializes in ancient history and the study of "folk science", or how pre-scientific cultures interpreted data about the natural world, and how these ...

, Pliny also wrote, "griffins were said to lay eggs in burrows on the ground and these nests contained

gold nugget :''"Gold nugget" may also refer to the catfish Baryancistrus xanthellus or the mango cultivar Gold Nugget.'' A gold nugget is a naturally occurring piece of native gold. Watercourses often concentrate nuggets and finer gold in placers. Nuggets a ...

s".

,{{efn, Apollonius of Tyana's writings, as recorded in his biography by

Flavius Philostratus Philostratus or Lucius Flavius Philostratus (; grc-gre, Φιλόστρατος ; c. 170 – 247/250 AD), called "the Athenian", was a Greek sophist of the Roman imperial period. His father was a minor sophist of the same name. He was born probab ...

. 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.{{cite book, ref={{SfnRef, Philostratus, Conybeare tr., 1912 , translator=

F. C. Conybeare Frederick Cornwallis Conybeare, (14 September 1856 – 9 January 1924) was a British Oriental studies, orientalist, Fellow of University College, Oxford, and Professor of Theology at the University of Oxford. Biography Conybeare was born in Co ...

, title=The Life of Apollonius of Tyana , publisher=W. Heinemann , date=1912 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ci4jAQAAMAAJ&q=griffins&pg=PA333 , at=volume I, book III. Chapter XLVIII, p. 333
{{blockquote, 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".{{sfnp, Mayor, Heaney, 1993, p=42{{Refn, group="lower-alpha", Apollonius also compares the griffins to gold-gathering ants, though he places the ants not in India but in Africa (

Aethiopia Ancient Aethiopia, ( gr, Αἰθιοπία, Aithiopía; also known as Ethiopia) first appears as a geographical term in classical documents in reference to the upper Nile region of Sudan, as well as certain areas south of the Sahara desert. It ...

Pomponius Mela Pomponius Mela, who wrote around AD 43, was the earliest Roman geographer. He was born in Tingentera (now Algeciras) and died AD 45. His short work (''De situ orbis libri III.'') remained in use nearly to the year 1500. It occupies less ...

(fl. AD 43) wrote in his Book ii. 6: {{blockquote, 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. The aforementioned Aelian (

Claudius Aelianus Claudius Aelianus ( grc, Κλαύδιος Αἰλιανός, Greek transliteration ''Kláudios Ailianós''; c. 175c. 235 AD), commonly Aelian (), born at Praeneste, was a Roman author and teacher of rhetoric who flourished under Septimius Severus ...

, d. 235 AD) added certain other embellishments, such as its reputation of "black plumage on its back with a red chest and white wings".{{Refn, name="aelian", Aelian ''De natura animalium''IV , 27:"Gryphem, Indicum animal, audio similiter quadrupedem, ut leonem,.." Quoted in English translation by {{harvp, Mayor, 2011, p=33 and excerpted with somewhat different phrasing in {{harvp, Mayor, Heaney, 1993, pp=44–45. 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).

Divine creature

The griffin has been associated with various deities (Apollo, Dionysus, Nemesis), in Greek

mythography Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...

but here, the identifiable attested "accounts" presented in scholarship are largely not literary, but artistic, or

numismatic Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects. Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also includ ...

. 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 Olbia (, ; sc, Terranoa; sdn, Tarranoa) is a city and commune of 60,346 inhabitants (May 2018) in the Italian insular province of Sassari in northeastern Sardinia, Italy, in the historical region of Gallura. Called ''Olbia'' in the Roman age, ...

on the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

. And even the main Temple of Apollo at

Delphi Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), in ancient times was a sacred precinct that served as the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. The oracle ...

featured a statue of the god flanked by griffins, or so it can be presumed based on the representation struck on the

tetradrachm The tetradrachm ( grc-gre, τετράδραχμον, tetrádrachmon) was a large silver coin that originated in Ancient Greece. It was nominally equivalent to four Greek drachma, drachmae. Over time the tetradrachm effectively became the standard ...

coinage of Attica. Apollo rode a griffin to Hyperboria each winter, leaving Delphi, or so it was believed.{{sfnp, Franks, 2009, p=469 Apollo riding griffin is known from multiple examples of

red-figure pottery Red-figure vase painting is one of the most important styles of figural Greek vase painting. It developed in Athens around 520 BCE and remained in use until the late 3rd century BCE. It replaced the previously dominant style of black-figure vas ...

.{{Refn, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum 202, red-figure cup/''

kylix In the pottery of ancient Greece, a kylix ( , ; grc, κύλιξ, pl. κύλικες; also spelled cylix; pl.: kylikes , ) is the most common type of wine-drinking cup. It has a broad, relatively shallow, body raised on a stem from a foot ...

'', ca. 400–300 BC. London, British Museum E 543. red-figure ''

oinochoe An oenochoe, also spelled oinochoe ( grc, οἰνοχόη; from grc, οἶνος ''oînos'', "wine" and grc, χέω ''khéō'', "I pour," sense "wine-pourer"; plural ''oinochoai''; New Latin ''oenochoë,'' plural ''oenochoae,'' English plura ...

''. And Apollo hitched griffins to his chariot according to

Claudian Claudius Claudianus, known in English as Claudian (; c. 370 – c. 404 AD), was a Latin poet associated with the court of the Roman emperor Honorius at Mediolanum (Milan), and particularly with the general Stilicho. His work, written almost ent ...

.{{Refn, Claudian, ''VI Honorii'' 30–31: {{lang, la, at si Phoebus adest et frenis grypha iugalem / Riphaeo tripodas repetens detorsit ab axe. Dionysus was also depicted on a griffin-chariot{{sfnp, Riefstahl, 1956, p=3 or mounting griffin; the motif was borrowed from the god Apollo due to "syncretism between the two gods".{{Refn, {{harvp, Westgate, 2011, p=298 citing {{harvp, Delplace, 1980, pp=372–376. At the Temple of Hera at

, a griffin-themed bronze "wine-cup" or "cauldron" had been installed, according to Herodotus. The vessel was attached griffin heads around the rim (like the ''protomes'', described above): it was an Argolic or

Argive Argos (; el, Άργος ; grc, label=Ancient and Katharevousa, Ἄργος ) is a city in Argolis, Peloponnese, Greece and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, and the oldest in Europe. It is the largest city in Arg ...

krater A krater or crater ( grc-gre, , ''kratēr'', literally "mixing vessel") was a large two-handled shape of vase in Ancient Greek pottery and metalwork, mostly used for the mixing of wine with water. Form and function At a Greek symposium, krat ...

'', according to the text,{{efn, {{lang, grc, κρητῆρος Ἀργολικοῦ. standing on a tripod shaped like colossal figures.{{harvp, 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)

Medieval accounts

A Soldier Fighting A Griffin In The 'Alphonso' Psalter

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, date=June 2013 The griffin was thus made an emblem of the Church's opposition to

remarriage Remarriage is a marriage that takes place after a previous marital union has ended, as through divorce or widowhood. Some individuals are more likely to remarry than others; the likelihood can differ based on previous relationship status (e.g. div ...

.{{Dubious, date=January 2012 The notion that griffins lay stones or agate instead of eggs was introduced "at some in the evolution of griffin lore".

Albertus Magnus Albertus Magnus (c. 1200 – 15 November 1280), also known as Saint Albert the Great or Albert of Cologne, was a German Dominican friar, philosopher, scientist, and bishop. Later canonised as a Catholic saint, he was known during his life ...

(d. 1280) attributes to other writers the claim that "this bird places an ' eagle-stone' ({{lang, la, echytem) or agate ({{lang, la, gagatem) among its eggs" to change the ambient temperature and enhance reproduction.{{sfnp, Nigg, 1999, p=144

Christian symbolism

The account of the "gryphes" by

(d. 636) lacked any Christian allegorical interpretation, and the griffin is classified as a "beast of prey".{{sfnp, Nigg, 1999, p=121 Thus Isidore (''Etymologies'' xii.2 .17){{sfnp, McCulloch, 1962, p=122 gives: {{blockquote, The Gryphes are so called because they are winged quadrupeds. This kind of wild beast is found in the

Hyperborean In Greek mythology, the Hyperboreans ( grc, Ὑπερβόρε(ι)οι, ; la, Hyperborei) were a mythical people who lived in the far northern part of the known world. Their name appears to derive from the Greek , "beyond Boreas" (the God of ...

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".{{sfnp, Nigg, 1999, p=121 Isidore's localization of the griffins in the mountains of Hyperborea derives from

Servius Servius is the name of: * Servius (praenomen), the personal name * Maurus Servius Honoratus, a late fourth-century and early fifth-century grammarian * Servius Tullius, the Roman king * Servius Sulpicius Rufus, the 1st century BC Roman jurist See ...

(4th and 5th century). Griffins had already been localized

Riphean Mountains In Greco-Roman geography, the Riphean Mountains (also Riphaean; , or ; '' grc, Ῥιπαῖα ὄρη''; Latin: ''Rhipaei'' or ''Riphaei montes'') were a supposed mountain range located in the far north of Eurasia. The name of the mountains is ...

by Mela (1st century) as quoted above, 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. The griffin were already being depicted attacking the horse in ancient art, as on the gold pectoral of the Scythian King noted above. 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 Christendom historically refers to the Christian states, Christian-majority countries and the countries in which Christianity dominates, prevails,SeMerriam-Webster.com : dictionary, "Christendom"/ref> or is culturally or historically intertwine ...

as a symbol of

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

, 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).{{sfnp, Millington, 1858, p=277 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 Herrad of Landsberg ( la, Herrada Landsbergensis; 1130 – July 25, 1195) was a 12th-century Alsace, Alsatian nun and abbess of Hohenburg Abbey in the Vosges mountains. She was known as the author of the pictorial encyclopedia ''Hortus deliciaru ...

's manuscript (''

Hortus deliciarum __NOTOC__ The ''Hortus deliciarum'' (Latin for ''Garden of Delights'') was a medieval manuscript compiled by Herrad of Landsberg at the Hohenburg Abbey in Alsace, better known today as Mont Sainte-Odile. Description The ''Hortus deliciarum'' ...

'', completed c. 1185) clearly depicted the two-colored bird as symbolic of the Church. At any rate, the griffin can be found sculpted at a number of Christian churches.{{sfnp, Millington, 1858, p=277

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.{{sfnp, Mayor, 2022, pp=43–48 The eggs were often ostrich eggs, or in rare cases, fossilized dinosaur eggs.{{sfnp, Mayor, 2022, pp=43–44 The feather is a piece of forgery, an object crafted from

raffia palm Raffia palms (''Raphia'') are a genus of about twenty species of palms native to tropical regions of Africa, and especially Madagascar, with one species (''R. taedigera'') also occurring in Central and South America. ''R. taedigera'' is the sour ...

fiber, with painted colors.{{sfnp, Mayor, 2022, p=44 The supposed claws were often turned into drinking cups{{sfnp, Mayor, 2022, p=47 (and griffin egg artifacts were also used as goblets, according to heraldry scholars).{{sfnp, Millington, 1858, pp=278–279 A number of medieval griffin's claws existed, sometimes purported to be very large.{{Refn, Gerald Leigh, in his work on heraldry (1563), surmised from his claw that the original griffin must have been as "bigge as two lyons".{{sfnp, Mayor, 2022, p=44 Lady Mary Wortley Montague (1716) observed a gilded "prodigious claw" referred to as a griffin's claw while touring the Danube.{{sfnp, Mayor, 2022, p=44 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,{{sfnp, Mayor, 2022, pp=42–43, 47–48 but the two-feet claws that still remain on display have been identified as

Alpine ibex The Alpine ibex (''Capra ibex''), also known as the steinbock, bouquetin, or simply ibex, is a species of wild goat that lives in the mountains of the European Alps. It is a sexually dimorphic species: males are larger and carry longer, curved h ...

horns.{{sfnp, Mayor, 2022, p=47 There is said to be a legend that a griffin's claw was made into a cup and dedicated to Cuthbert.{{sfnp, Millington, 1858, p=278 As a matter of fact, griffin claws were frequently fashioned into goblets (drinking cups) in medieval Europe,{{sfnp, Mayor, 2022, p=47 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 Raptor or RAPTOR may refer to: Animals The word "raptor" refers to several groups of bird-like dinosaurs which primarily capture and subdue/kill prey with their talons. * Raptor (bird) or bird of prey, a bird that primarily hunts and feeds on v ...

.{{sfnp, Mayor, 2022, pp=44–45{{Refn, group="lower-alpha", Mayor seems to suggest it may have been the "carved ivory horn" obtained as a gift from

Harun al-Rashid Abu Ja'far Harun ibn Muhammad al-Mahdi ( ar , أبو جعفر هارون ابن محمد المهدي) or Harun ibn al-Mahdi (; or 766 – 24 March 809), famously known as Harun al-Rashid ( ar, هَارُون الرَشِيد, translit=Hārūn ...

, who also gave Charlemagne the live elephant

Abul-Abbas Abul-Abbas ( – 810) was an Asian elephant brought back to the Carolingian emperor Charlemagne by his diplomat Isaac the Jew. The gift was from the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid and symbolizes the beginning of Abbasid–Carolingian relation ...

.{{sfnp, Mayor, 2022, pp=44–45 However, the ivory horn given by the caliph seems more likely to be Charlemagne's olifant, perhaps the one held in Aachen.

Kornelimünster Abbey Kornelimünster Abbey (german: Benediktinerabtei Kornelimünster), also known as Abbey of the Abbot Saint Benedict of Aniane and Pope Cornelius, is a Benedictine monastery that has been integrated since 1972. The abbey is located in Aachen (in t ...

located in Charlemagne's former capital of Aix-la-Chapelle (now

Aachen Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th- ...

, Germany) also houses a griffin horn of

Pope Cornelius Pope Cornelius was the bishop of Rome from 6th or 13th March 251 until his martyrdom in June 253. He was pope during and following a period of persecution of the church, while a schism occurred over how Lapsi (Christianity), repentant church membe ...

, made of Asian buffalo horn.{{sfnp, Mayor, 2022, p=46

Medieval iconography

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." 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.

Folklore

According to Stephen Friar's ''New Dictionary of Heraldry'', a griffin's claw was believed to have

medicinal Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practic ...

properties and one of its feathers could restore

sight Visual perception is the ability to interpret the surrounding Biophysical environment, environment through photopic vision (daytime vision), color vision, scotopic vision (night vision), and mesopic vision (twilight vision), using light in the ...

to the blind.{{Additional citation needed, date=March 2023 Attestation of griffin's feather as cure for blindness does occur in an Italian folktale, classed as the "

The Singing Bone "The Singing Bone" (german: Der singende Knochen) is a German fairy tale, collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 28. It is Aarne-Thompson type 780. Synopsis A boar lays waste to a country, and two brothers set out to kill it, with the p ...

" tale type (

ATU Atu may refer to: * Atu, a character in Samoan mythology * Atu Bosenavulagi, an Australian rules footballer * Atu, Iran, a village in Iran * Atu Moli, New Zealand rugby union player * Atu'u is a village on Tutuila Island, American Samoa ATU may re ...

780). There is also a study that considers the griffin's feather tale as a variant of the "

The Twa Sisters "The Twa Sisters" ("The Two Sisters") is a traditional murder ballad, dating at least as far back as the mid 17th century. The song recounts the tale of a girl drowned by her jealous sister. At least 21 English variants exist under several names ...

" ballad (

Child Ballad The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies of them were published as '' ...

10), as the tale incorporates the song in Italian, supposedly sung by the bones of the murdered finder of the feather). 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.

In heraldry

{{multiple image , align = right , total_width = 320 , perrow=2 , image1 = Bevan Crest.jpg , alt1 = A heraldic griffin passant of the Bevan family crest. , caption1 = A heraldic griffin passant of the Bevan family crest. , image2 = Griffin of Perugia.jpg , alt2 = Griffin segreant wearing the

mural crown A mural crown ( la, corona muralis) is a crown or headpiece representing city walls, towers, or fortresses. In classical antiquity, it was an emblem of tutelary deities who watched over a city, and among the Romans a military decoration. Later th ...

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part o ...

, 13th century , caption2 = Griffin segreant wearing the

, 13th century {{multiple image , align = right , total_width = 240 , perrow=2 , image1 = POL województwo zachodniopomorskie COA.svg , alt1 = Pomeranian coat-of-arms , caption1 = Pomeranian coat-of-arms , image2 = Wappen Greifswald.svg , alt2 = Similarly, the coat of arms of

Greifswald Greifswald (), officially the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald (german: Universitäts- und Hansestadt Greifswald, Low German: ''Griepswoold'') is the fourth-largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rostoc ...

, Germany, in

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; nds, Mäkelborg-Vörpommern), also known by its anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ranks 14th in po ...

, also shows a red griffin rampant – perched in a tree, reflecting a legend about the town's founding in the 13th century. , caption2 = Coat-of-arms of

, Germany, in

, image3 = POL COA Gryf.svg , alt3 =

Gryf coat of arms Gryf (Polish for " Griffin"), also known as Jaxa, is a Polish coat of arms that was used by many noble families in medieval Poland and later under the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, branches of the original medieval Gryfita-Świebodzic fami ...

of the Polish knighthood family Gryfici. Used since c. 1481 , caption3 = The

of the knighthood family

Gryfici The House of Griffin or Griffin dynasty (german: Greifen; pl, Gryfici, da, Grif) was a dynasty ruling the Duchy of Pomerania from the 12th century until 1637. The name "Griffins" was used by the dynasty after the 15th century and had been take ...

.{{efn, Used since c. 1481

Polish noble The ''szlachta'' (Polish: endonym, Lithuanian: šlėkta) were the noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth who, as a class, had the dominating position in the ...

families. , image4 = Emblem of Crimea.svg , alt4 = The

Coat of arms of Crimea Both the Ukrainian Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the Russian Republic of Crimea use the same coat of arms (russian: Герб Крыма, uk, Герб Криму), which has been in use since 1992. Description The coat of arms consists of a ...

, caption4 = Coat-of-arms of Crimea , footer = 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. The heraldic griffin "denote strength and military, courage and leadership", according to one source. That it became a Christian

symbol A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...

divine power Omnipotence is the quality of having unlimited power. Monotheistic religions generally attribute omnipotence only to the deity of their faith. In the monotheistic religious philosophy of Abrahamic religions, omnipotence is often listed as one of ...

and a guardian of the divine, 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 Attitude may refer to: Philosophy and psychology * Attitude (psychology), an individual's predisposed state of mind regarding a value * Metaphysics of presence * Propositional attitude, a relational mental state connecting a person to a pro ...

terminology as the

, with the exception that where a lion would be described as rampant a griffin is instead described as

segreant In heraldry, the term attitude describes the ''position'' in which a figure (animal or human) is emblazoned as a charge, a supporter, or as a crest. The attitude of an heraldic figure always precedes any reference to the tincture of the figure ...

. 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 The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unicorn has for the last thousand years o ...

. 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. It is possible that the male griffin originated as a derivation of the heraldic

panther Panther may refer to: Large cats *Pantherinae, the cat subfamily that contains the genera ''Panthera'' and ''Neofelis'' **''Panthera'', the cat genus that contains tigers, lions, jaguars and leopards. ***Jaguar (''Panthera onca''), found in Sout ...

Houses and cities using the device

When

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

emerged as a major seafaring power in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

and the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

, griffins commenced to be depicted as part of the republic's

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

, rearing at the sides of the shield bearing the

Cross of St. George The Cross of Saint George (russian: Георгиевский крест, Georgiyevskiy krest) is a state decoration of the Russian Federation. It was initially established by Imperial Russia where it was officially known as the Decoration of t ...

. The red griffin rampant was the coat of arms of the dukes of

Pomerania Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...

and survives today as the armorial of

West Pomeranian Voivodeship The West Pomeranian Voivodeship, also known as the West Pomerania Province, is a voivodeship (province) in northwestern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Szczecin. Its area equals 22 892.48 km² (8,838.84 sq mi), and in 2021, it was i ...

(historically,

Farther Pomerania Farther Pomerania, Hinder Pomerania, Rear Pomerania or Eastern Pomerania (german: Hinterpommern, Ostpommern), is the part of Pomerania which comprised the eastern part of the Duchy and later Province of Pomerania. It stretched roughly from the Od ...

) 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

hippogriff The hippogriff, or sometimes spelled hippogryph ( el, Ἱππόγρυπας), is a legendary creature with the front half of an eagle and the hind half of a horse. It was invented by Ludovico Ariosto in his ''Orlando Furioso'', at the beginning o ...

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 Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branch ...

, such a wingless griffin may be called an

alke In Greek mythology, the name Alke (Ancient Greek: Ἁλκή means "prowess, courage"), also transliterated as Alce, may refer to: *Alke, the spirit and personification of the abstract concept of courage and battle-strength. In the ''Iliad'', sh ...

, 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 Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

or a

mermaid In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Asia, and Africa. Mermaids are sometimes asso ...

. Sea-griffins are present on the arms of a number of German noble families, including the Mestich family of

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

and the Barony of

Puttkamer The House of Puttkamer (also abbreviated to ''v. Puttkamer'') belongs to a widely extended German noble family whose earliest ancestor is first recorded between 1257 and 1260 in Schlawe (Sławno), Farther Pomerania. While some of its branches hav ...

Opinicus

The opinicus or epimacus is another heraldic variety of griffin, which is depicted with the head of an eagle and all four legs of a lion where it occasionally has the neck and tail of a

dromedary The dromedary (''Camelus dromedarius'' or ;), also known as the dromedary camel, Arabian camel, or one-humped camel, is a large even-toed ungulate, of the genus ''Camelus'', with one hump on its back. It is the tallest of the three species of ...

. It is sometimes wingless when born and will grow wings as it matures. The opinicus is rarely used in heraldry, but appears in the arms of the

Worshipful Company of Barbers The Worshipful Company of Barbers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London, and ranks 17th in precedence. The Fellowship of Surgeons merged with the Barbers' Company in 1540, forming the Company of Barbers and Surgeons, but after ...

In architecture

{{multiple image , align = right , total_width = 400 , image1 = Psa-Opera del Duomo-Grifone Islamico007.jpg , alt1 = The

Pisa Griffin The Pisa Griffin is a large bronze sculpture of a griffin, a mythical beast, that has remained in Pisa, Italy since the Middle Ages despite its Islamic origin, specifically 11th century Al-Andalus (Islamic Spain). The Pisa Griffin is the largest ...

, in the Pisa Cathedral Museum, 11th century , caption1 = The

Pisa Cathedral Pisa Cathedral ( it, Cattedrale Metropolitana Primaziale di Santa Maria Assunta; Duomo di Pisa) is a medieval Roman Catholic cathedral dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, in the Piazza dei Miracoli in Pisa, Italy, the oldest of the th ...

Museum, 11th century , image2 = Venice - Statue of a griffin.jpg , alt2 = Statue of a griffin at St Mark's Basilica in Venice , caption2 = Statue of a griffin.

St Mark's Basilica The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark ( it, Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco), commonly known as St Mark's Basilica ( it, Basilica di San Marco; vec, Baxéłega de San Marco), is the cathedral church of the Catholic Chu ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

, footer = The

is a large bronze sculpture that has been in

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...

in Italy since the Middle Ages, though it is of

Islamic Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the mai ...

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 Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label=Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the Mus ...

(Islamic Spain). From about 1100 it was placed on a column on the roof of

until replaced by a replica in 1832; the original is now in the Museo dell' Opera del Duomo (Cathedral Museum), Pisa. In

architectural Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings o ...

decoration the griffin is usually represented as a four-footed beast with wings and the head of an

with

horn Horn most often refers to: *Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...

s, or with the head and beak of an eagle.{{Citation needed, date=May 2007 The statues that mark the entrance to the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

are sometimes mistaken for griffins, but are in fact (Tudor) dragons, the supporters of the city's arms. They are most easily distinguished from griffins by their membranous, rather than feathered, wings.

In fiction

: ''For fictional characters named Griffin, see

Griffin (surname) Griffin is a surname of Irish, English and Welsh origin. Griffin was the 75th most common surname on the island of Ireland in 1891. It was estimated in 2000 that Griffin is the 114th most common surname in the U.S., with a population in the order ...

'' Griffins are used widely in

Persian poetry Persian literature ( fa, ادبیات فارسی, Adabiyâte fârsi, ) comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Persian language and is one of the world's oldest literatures. It spans over two-and-a-half millennia. Its sources h ...

;

Rumi Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī ( fa, جلال‌الدین محمد رومی), also known as Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī (), Mevlânâ/Mawlānā ( fa, مولانا, lit= our master) and Mevlevî/Mawlawī ( fa, مولوی, lit= my ma ...

is one such poet who writes in reference to griffins.''The Essential Rumi'', translated from

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

Coleman Barks Coleman Barks (born April 23, 1937) is an American poet, and former literature faculty at the University of Georgia. Although he neither speaks nor reads Persian, he is a popular interpreter of Rumi, rewriting the poems based on other English t ...

, p 257 In

Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...

's ''

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and ...

'' story ''

Purgatorio ''Purgatorio'' (; Italian for "Purgatory") is the second part of Dante's ''Divine Comedy'', following the ''Inferno'' and preceding the '' Paradiso''. The poem was written in the early 14th century. It is an allegory telling of the climb of Da ...

'', 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. The red animal story book - plate facing page 004

The red animal story book - plate facing page 004

Sir John Mandeville Sir John Mandeville is the supposed author of ''The Travels of Sir John Mandeville'', a travel memoir which first circulated between 1357 and 1371. The earliest-surviving text is in French. By aid of translations into many other languages, the ...

wrote about them in his 14th century book of travels: {{blockquote, 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.''The Travels of Sir John Mandeville'', Chapter XXIX, Macmillan and Co. edition, 1900.{{sfnp, Millington, 1858, p=278 Alice griffin, rabbithole

John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political ...

in ''

Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse (poetry), verse. A second edition fo ...

'' he mentions the griffin as an allusion to

Satan Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as Devil in Christianity, the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an non-physical entity, entity in the Abrahamic religions ...

:{{sfnp, Edwards, 2005, p=100 {{blockquote, 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

Hyperborean-gryphon-persepolis-protoceratops-psittacosaurus-skeletons

, 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

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

ized remains of beaked dinosaurs such as ''

Protoceratops ''Protoceratops'' (; ) is a genus of small protoceratopsid dinosaurs that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous, around 75 to 71 million years ago. The genus ''Protoceratops'' includes two species: ''P. andrewsi'' and the larger ''P. hellenik ...

'' observed on the way to gold deposits by nomadic prospectors of ancient Scythia (Central Asia). 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 argues that ''Protoceratops'' fossils, seen by ancient observers, may have been interpreted as evidence of a half-bird-half-mammal creature. She argues that over-repeated retelling and drawing or recopying its bony neck frill (which is rather fragile and may have been frequently broken or entirely weathered away) may become large mammal-type external ears, and its beak may be treated as evidence of a part-bird nature and lead to bird-type wings being added. Paleontologist

Mark P. Witton Mark Paul Witton is a British vertebrate paleontologist, palaeontologist, author, and palaeoartist best known for his research and illustrations concerning pterosaurs, the extinct flying reptiles that lived alongside dinosaurs. He has worked wi ...

has contested this hypothesis, arguing that it ignores the existence of depictions of griffins 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.

Modern culture

Popular fiction

Griffins, like many other fictional creatures, frequently appear within works under the

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

genre. Examples of fantasy-oriented franchises that feature griffins include ''

Warhammer Fantasy Battle ''Warhammer'' (formerly ''Warhammer Fantasy Battle'' or just ''Warhammer Fantasy'') is a tabletop miniature wargame with a medieval fantasy theme. The game was created by Bryan Ansell, Richard Halliwell, and Rick Priestley; it was published ...

'', ''

Warcraft ''Warcraft'' is a franchise of video games, novels, and other media created by Blizzard Entertainment. The series is made up of five core games: '' Warcraft: Orcs & Humans'', '' Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness'', '' Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos ...

'', ''

Heroes of Might and Magic ''Heroes of Might and Magic'', known as ''Might & Magic Heroes'' since 2011, is a series of video games originally created and developed by Jon Van Caneghem through New World Computing. As part of the ''Might and Magic'' franchise, the series ...

'', the Griffon in ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...

'', ''

Ragnarok Online ''Ragnarok Online'' ( ko, 라그나로크 온라인, marketed as ''Ragnarök'', and alternatively subtitled ''The Final Destiny of the Gods'') is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) created by Gravity based on the manhwa '' ...

'', ''

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...

'', ''

The Spiderwick Chronicles ''The Spiderwick Chronicles'' is a series of children's fantasy books by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black. They chronicle the adventures of the Grace children, twins Simon and Jared and their older sister Mallory, after they move into the Spid ...

'', '' My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic'', and ''

The Battle for Wesnoth ''The Battle for Wesnoth'' is a free and open-source turn-based strategy video game with a high fantasy setting, designed by Australian-American developer David White and first released in June 2003. In ''Wesnoth'', the player attempts to build ...

''. Griffins appear in the fairy tales "

Jack the Giant Killer "Jack the Giant Killer" is a Cornish fairy tale and legend about a young adult who slays a number of bad giants during King Arthur's reign. The tale is characterised by violence, gore and blood-letting. Giants are prominent in Cornish folklor ...

", " The Griffin" and "

The Singing, Springing Lark "The Singing, Springing Lark", "The Singing, Soaring Lark", "The Lady and the Lion" or "Lily and the Lion" (german: Das singende springende Löweneckerchen) is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, appearing as tale no. 88. It i ...

". In ''

Digimon , short for "Digital Monsters" ( ''Dejitaru Monsutā''), is a Japanese media franchise encompassing virtual pet toys, anime, manga, video games, films and a trading card game. The franchise focuses on the eponymous creatures, who inhabit a "Di ...

'', 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 ''The Son of Neptune'' is a 2011 fantasy-adventure novel written by American author Rick Riordan, based on Greek and Roman mythology. It is the second book in ''The Heroes of Olympus'' series, preceded by '' The Lost Hero'' and followed by ''T ...

'' by

Rick Riordan Richard Russell Riordan Junior (; born June 5, 1964) is an American author, best known for writing the ''Percy Jackson & the Olympians'' series. Riordan's books have been translated into forty-two languages and sold more than thirty million co ...

Percy Jackson Perseus "Percy" Jackson is a fictional character, the title character and narrator of Rick Riordan's ''Percy Jackson & the Olympians'' series. He is also one of seven main protagonists of the sequel series ''The Heroes of Olympus'', appearing ...

Hazel Levesque A description of most characters featured in various mythology series by Rick Riordan. Overview List indicator(s) * A dark grey cell indicates that the character was not in the property or that the character's presence in the property has yet to ...

, and

Frank Zhang A description of most characters featured in various mythology series by Rick Riordan. Overview List indicator(s) * A dark grey cell indicates that the character was not in the property or that the character's presence in the property has yet to ...

are attacked by griffins in

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

. In the ''

'' series, the character

Albus Dumbledore Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore is a fictional character in J. K. Rowling's ''Harry Potter'' series. For most of the series, he is the headmaster of the wizarding school Hogwarts. As part of his backstory, it is revealed that he is ...

has a griffin-shaped knocker. Also, the character

Godric Gryffindor The following fictional characters are staff members and denizens of Hogwarts in the ''Harry Potter'' books written by J. K. Rowling. The staff and their positions Teachers and staff members The following teachers and staff members do not ha ...

's surname is a variation on the French ''griffon d'or'' ("golden griffon").

Modern art

The griffin is the symbol of the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...

;

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

castings of them perch on each corner of the

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

's roof, protecting its collection.Glassteelandstone.com
{{webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511205337/http://www.glasssteelandstone.com/BuildingDetail/472.php , date=11 May 2013 , Philadelphia Museum of Art: Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, Glass Steel and Stone The "Griff" statue by {{illm, Veres Kálmán, hu was erected in 2007 at the forecourt of the Farkashegyi cemetery in Budapest, Hungary.

Logos, mascots

{{multiple image , align = right , total_width = 320 , image1 = Seal_of_Heraklion.svg , alt1 = modern unicipal seal of Heraklion, Greece , caption1 = Municipal official seal (modern) of

Heraklion Heraklion or Iraklion ( ; el, Ηράκλειο, , ) is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete and capital of Heraklion regional unit. It is the fourth largest city in Greece with a population of 211,370 (Urban A ...

, Greece , image2 = MervGriffinEntertainment.png , alt2 = Company logo for Merv Griffin Entertainment, using a silver griffin statue , caption2 = Merv Griffin Entertainment logo , footer = {{See also, #Eponymy An archaic griffin design, created by artist {{illm, Thomas Fanourakis, el, Θωμάς Φανουράκης (1915–1993), was adopted as the official symbol of the city of Heraklion on 22 March 1961 (cf. figure right).{{efn, The design of the griffin is a mock-up of Minoan art, but the inscription language is archaicized Greek, not

Minoan The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from 3500BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000BC, and then declining from 1450B ...

(

Linear A Linear A is a writing system that was used by the Minoans of Crete from 1800 to 1450 BC to write the hypothesized Minoan language or languages. Linear A was the primary script used in palace and religious writings of the Minoan civil ...

and

Cretan hieroglyphs Cretan hieroglyphs are a hieroglyphic writing system used in early Bronze Age Crete, during the Minoan era. They predate Linear A by about a century, but the two writing systems continued to be used in parallel for most of their history. , they ...

).{{cite news, author-link= , title=Ο Γρύπας, το μυθικό τέρας γίνεται το σύμβολο της πόλης του Ηρακλείου… , newspaper=Cretalive News , date=22 March 2021 Film and television company

Merv Griffin Entertainment Merv Griffin Entertainment is an American production company founded by American media mogul Merv Griffin on May 13, 1996. It is part of The Griffin Group. Its productions include revivals of recent franchises, such as ''Dance Fever'', revived in 2 ...

uses a griffin for its production company. Merv Griffin Entertainment was founded by entrepreneur

Merv Griffin Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. (July 6, 1925 – August 12, 2007) was an American television show host and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer, later appearing in film and on Broadway. From 1965 to 1986 he hosted his own ta ...

and is based in

Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. B ...

. His former company

Merv Griffin Enterprises Merv Griffin Enterprises was an American television production company founded by Merv Griffin, in business for 31 years from March 1963 to July 1994. History The company was first established as Milbarn Productions on March 7, 1963, and later ...

also used a griffin for its logo. The griffin is used in the logo of United Paper Mills,

Vauxhall Motors Vauxhall Motors LimitedCompany No. 00135767. Incorporated 12 May 1914, name changed from Vauxhall Motors Limited to General Motors UK Limited on 16 April 2008, reverted to Vauxhall Motors Limited on 18 September 2017. () is a British car compa ...

, and of

Scania Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conte ...

and its former partners

Saab Group Saab AB (originally , later just SAAB and Saab Group) is a Swedish aerospace and defence company, founded in 1937. Headquartered in Stockholm, the development and the manufacturing is undertaken in Linköping. Saab produced automobiles from 194 ...

and

Saab Automobile Saab Automobile AB () is a defunct automotive industry, car manufacturer that was founded in Sweden in 1945 when its parent company, Saab AB, began a project to design a small automobile. The first production model, the Saab 92, was launched in ...

. Similarly, prior to the mid-1990s a griffin formed part of the logo of

Midland Bank Midland Bank Plc was one of the Big Four banking groups in the United Kingdom for most of the 20th century. It is now part of HSBC. The bank was founded as the Birmingham and Midland Bank in Union Street, Birmingham, England in August 1836. It ...

(now

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tri ...

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

Gripen The Saab JAS 39 Gripen (; English: ''griffin'') is a light single-engine multirole fighter aircraft manufactured by the Swedish aerospace and defense company Saab AB. The Gripen has a delta wing and canard configuration with relaxed stabilit ...

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

School emblems and mascots

{{Further, List of griffins as mascots and in heraldry {{more citations needed, section, date=September 2017 FASTWÜRMS - Gryphon

Three gryphons form the crest of

Trinity College, Oxford (That which you wish to be secret, tell to nobody) , named_for = The Holy Trinity , established = , sister_college = Churchill College, Cambridge , president = Dame Hilary Boulding , location = Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BH , coordinates ...

(founded 1555), originating from the family crest of founder

Sir Thomas Pope Sir Thomas Pope (c. 150729 January 1559), was a prominent public servant in mid-16th-century England, a Member of Parliament, a wealthy landowner, and the founder of Trinity College, Oxford. Early life Pope was born at Deddington, near Ban ...

. 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 The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford. Founded in 1823, it is one of Britain's oldest ...

. Griffins are also mascots for

VU University Amsterdam The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (abbreviated as ''VU Amsterdam'' or simply ''VU'' when in context) is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, being founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research ...

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Supervision system, Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sara ...

, the

University of Guelph , mottoeng = "to learn the reasons of realities" , established = May 8, 1964 ()As constituents: OAC: (1874) Macdonald Institute: (1903) OVC: (1922) , type = Public university , chancellor ...

, and

Canisius College Canisius College is a private Jesuit college in Buffalo, New York. It was founded in 1870 by Jesuits from Germany and is named after St. Peter Canisius. Canisius offers more than 100 undergraduate majors and minors, and around 34 master's ...

.{{citation needed, date=December 2013 The official seal of

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

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. The

College of William and Mary The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William III a ...

in Virginia changed its mascot to

Griffin The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (Ancient Greek: , ''gryps''; Classical Latin: ''grȳps'' or ''grȳpus''; Late Latin, Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a legendary creature with the body, tail ...

in April 2010. 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 The 12th Combat Aviation Brigade is a Combat Aviation Brigade of the United States Army. It was first organized as the 12th Aviation Group at Fort Benning, Georgia, on 18 June 1965. Vietnam The unit deployed to Vietnam in August 1965 to comma ...

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 Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

Wycliffe College Wycliffe College () is an evangelical graduate school of theology at the University of Toronto. Founded in 1877 as an evangelical seminary in the Anglican tradition, Wycliffe College today attracts students from many Christian denominations from ...

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 Glebe Collegiate Institute (GCI) is a high school in the Glebe neighbourhood of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Administered by the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB), Glebe Collegiate Institute has approximately 1,700 students and is the dis ...

in Ottawa is the gryphon, and the team name is the Glebe Gryphons. The griffin is the official mascot of

Chestnut Hill College Chestnut Hill College is a private Catholic college in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The college was founded in 1924 as a women's college by the Sisters of St. Joseph. It was originally named Mount Saint Joseph College ...

and

Gwynedd Mercy University Gwynedd Mercy University (GMercyU) is a private Roman Catholic university in Lower Gwynedd Township, Pennsylvania. It occupies a campus in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Gwynedd Mercy University was founded in 1948, as Gwynedd-Mercy College ...

, 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 Glenlyon Norfolk School (GNS) is an independent, co-ed, university preparatory day school in Victoria and Oak Bay, British Columbia, Canada. It was formed in 1986 with the amalgamation of Glenlyon School and Norfolk House. The school offers in ...

, an independent, co-ed, university preparatory day school in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

and

Oak Bay Oak Bay is a municipality incorporated in 1906 that is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is one of thirteen member municipalities of the Capital Regional District, and is bordere ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Police and military

{{multiple image , align = right , total_width = 240 , perrow=2 , image1 = Estonian Security Police logo.svg , alt1 = Yellow griffin pictured in the logo of the

Estonian Internal Security Service The Estonian Internal Security Service ( et, Kaitsepolitsei, officially et, Kaitsepolitseiamet, KaPo for short) is a central national security institution of Republic of Estonia. Its purposes are centered on enforcing constitutional order. Th ...

. , caption1 = Yellow griffin pictured in the logo of the

. , image2 = Utin jääkärirykmentin lippu.svg , alt2 = Flag of the

Utti Jaeger Regiment The Utti Jaeger Regiment ( fi, Utin Jääkärirykmentti, ()) is the Finnish Army training and development centre for special forces and helicopter operations in charge of the Army Special Forces Unit and the Special Forces Qualification Course. F ...

of the Finnish Army , caption2 = Flag of the

of the Finnish Army A griffin appears in the official seal of the

Waterloo Police Department (Iowa) The Waterloo Police Department is the municipal police department for the city of Waterloo, Iowa. The department currently consists of a staff of 120 sworn officers and 11 civilians. Since 1868 there have been 12 Marshals and 21 Police Chiefs f ...

. The

Royal Air Force Police The Royal Air Force Police (RAFP) is the service police branch of the Royal Air Force, headed by the provost marshal of the Royal Air Force. Its headquarters are at RAF Honington and it deploys throughout the world to support RAF and UK defence ...

depicts a griffin for their unit badge. The

Royal New Zealand Air Force The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) ( mi, Te Tauaarangi o Aotearoa, "The Warriors of the Sky of New Zealand"; previously ', "War Party of the Blue") is the aerial service branch of the New Zealand Defence Force. It was formed from New Zeala ...

Police depicts a griffin holding a

taiaha A taiaha () is a traditional weapon of the Māori of New Zealand; a close-quarters staff weapon made from either wood or whalebone, and used for short, sharp strikes or stabbing thrusts with efficient footwork on the part of the wielder. Taiaha a ...

for their unit badge.

Professional sports

The

Grand Rapids Griffins The Grand Rapids Griffins are a professional ice hockey, hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL) based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and play home games at Van Andel Arena. They are the AHL affiliate to the Detroit Red Wings of the National H ...

professional ice hockey team of the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary Minor league#Ice hockey, developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 AHL se ...

Suwon Samsung Bluewings ''(The Blue, White and Reds)''Tricolor'' , short name = SSB , image = , caption = , founded = , ground = Suwon World Cup Stadium , capacity = 44,031 , owner = Cheil Worldwide(Samsung's subsidiary) , chairma ...

's mascot "Aguileon" is a griffin. The name "Aguileon" is a compound using two

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

words; "aguila" meaning "

" and "leon" meaning "

Amusement parks

Busch Gardens Williamsburg Busch Gardens Williamsburg (formerly known as Busch Gardens Europe and Busch Gardens: The Old Country) is a amusement park located in James City County near Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Located approximately northwest of Virgini ...

's highlight attraction is a dive coaster called the "Griffon", which opened in 2007. In 2013,

Cedar Point Amusement Park Cedar Point is a amusement park located on a Lake Erie peninsula in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. Opened in 1870, it is considered the second-oldest operating amusement park in the U.S. behind Lake Compounce. Cedar Point is owned and oper ...

Sandusky, Ohio Sandusky ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Erie County, Ohio, Erie County, Ohio, United States. Situated along the shores of Lake Erie in the northern part of the state, Sandusky is located roughly midway between Toledo, Ohio, Toledo ( wes ...

opened the "

GateKeeper A gatekeeper is a person who controls access to something, for example via a city gate or bouncer, or more abstractly, controls who is granted access to a category or status. Gatekeepers assess who is "in or out", in the classic words of managem ...

" steel roller coaster, which features a griffin as its mascot.

In film and television

{{more citations needed, section, date=January 2023 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 ''World of Quest'' is a sci-fi comedy animated television series based on the graphic novel series of the same name by Jason T. Kruse. The series was produced by Cookie Jar Entertainment, in association with Teletoon and Kids' WB!. It appears to ...

'', ''

Yin Yang Yo! ''Yin Yang Yo!'' is a flash-animated television series created by Bob Boyle for Jetix. Produced by Jetix Animation Concepts as the third Jetix original series, it first aired on August 26, 2006, as a sneak peek and premiered on September 4, 2006, ...

'', and ''

Family Guy ''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffin family, Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter Griff ...

''. A griffin appeared in the 1974 film ''

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad ''The Golden Voyage of Sinbad'' is a 1973 fantasy adventure film directed by Gordon Hessler and featuring stop motion effects by Ray Harryhausen. Based on the ''Arabian Nights'' tales of Sinbad the Sailor, it is the second of three ''Sinbad'' f ...

''. In the 1969 movie ''Latitude Zero'', a creature called "Griffin" is made by inserting a woman's

brain A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a v ...

into a lion–

condor Condor is the common name for two species of New World vultures, each in a monotypic genus. The name derives from the Quechua ''kuntur''. They are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere. They are: * The Andean condor (''Vult ...

hybrid. In an episode of the

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

The Big Bang Theory ''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom served as executive producers on the series, along with Steven Molaro, all of whom also served as head writers. It premiered on CBS ...

'', Dr.

Sheldon Cooper Sheldon Lee Cooper, Doctor of Philosophy, Ph.D., Doctor of Science, Sc.D., is a Character (arts), fictional character in the CBS television series ''The Big Bang Theory'' and its spinoff series ''Young Sheldon'', portrayed by actors Jim Parsons ...

mentions that he attempted to create a griffin but could not obtain the "necessary eagle eggs and lion semen."

Eponymy

The latest fighter produced by the Saab Group bears the name "

" (Griffin), as a result of public competition. During World War II, the

Heinkel Heinkel Flugzeugwerke () was a German aircraft manufacturing company founded by and named after Ernst Heinkel. It is noted for producing bomber aircraft for the Luftwaffe in World War II and for important contributions to high-speed flight, with ...

firm named its heavy bomber design for the

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

after the legendary animal, as the

Heinkel He 177 The Heinkel He 177 ''Greif'' (Griffin) was a long-range heavy bomber flown by the ''Luftwaffe'' during World War II. The introduction of the He 177 to combat operations was significantly delayed, by both problems with the development of its ...

''Greif'', the German form of "griffin".

General Atomics General Atomics is an American energy and defense corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, specializing in research and technology development. This includes physics research in support of nuclear fission and nuclear fusion energy. The ...

has used the term "Griffin Eye" for its intelligence surveillance platform based on a Hawker Beechcraft King Air 35ER civilian aircraft.GA-ASI Introduces Griffin Eye Manned ISR System
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711062840/http://www.ga-asi.com/news_events/index.php?read=1&id=301 , date=11 July 2011 . GA-ASI.com (20 July 2010). Retrieved on 2 January 2012.

Fauna names

Some large species of

Old World vulture Old World vultures are vultures that are found in the Old World, i.e. the continents of Europe, Asia and Africa, and which belong to the family Accipitridae, which also includes eagles, buzzards, kites, and hawks. Old World vultures are not clos ...

s are called griffines, including the

griffon vulture The Eurasian griffon vulture (''Gyps fulvus'') is a large Old World vulture in the bird of prey family Accipitridae. It may also be known as the Griffon vulture, though it may be used for the genus as a whole. It is not to be confused with Rü ...

(''Gyps fulvus''). The scientific name for the

Andean condor The Andean condor (''Vultur gryphus'') is a giant South American Cathartid vulture and is the only member of the genus ''Vultur''. Found in the Andes mountains and adjacent Pacific coasts of western South America, the Andean condor is the larg ...

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

File:Johann-Vogel-Meditationes-emblematicae-de-restaurata-pace-Germaniae MGG 1034.tif, Griffin in Johann Vogel: ''Meditationes emblematicae de restaurata pace Germaniae'', 1649 File:Griffioen, Kasteel de Haar, juli 2003.JPG, Heraldic guardian griffin at

Kasteel de Haar De Haar Castle (Dutch: ''Kasteel de Haar'') is located in Utrecht, Netherlands. It is the largest castle in The Netherlands. Original site The oldest historical record of a building at the location of the current castle dates to 1391. In tha ...

, Netherlands, 1892–1912 File:Stuffed griffin.jpg,

Rogue taxidermy Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body via mounting (over an armature) or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word ''taxidermy'' describes the proce ...

griffin,

Zoological Museum, Copenhagen The Copenhagen Zoological Museum (Danish: ''Zoologisk Museum'') is a part of the Natural History Museum of Denmark, which is affiliated with the University of Copenhagen. History The Zoological Museum It is among the world's oldest natural hist ...

Explanatory notes

{{notelist

References

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Plate X, 144
, quote=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. {{citation, author=Isidore of Seville , author-link=Isidore of Seville , editor-last=Brehaut , editor-first=Ernest , editor-link=, editor-mask=Brehaut, Ernest (tr.) , title=An Encyclopedist of the Dark Ages: Isidore of Seville , location=New York , publisher=Columbia University Press , year=1912 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QBcOAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA225 , page=225 , series=Columbia Studies in the Social Sciences, 48. {{URL, 1=http://www.eaudrey.com/myth/griffin.htm, 2="Griffin"@eaudrey.com {{cite book, last=Brewster , first=Paul G. , author-link= , title=The Two Sisters , location=Helsinki , publisher=Academia Scientiarum Fennica , year=1953 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ATRLAAAAYAAJ&q=griffins , page=55 , series=FF Communications, 147 {{cite book, last=Chahin , first=Mack , author-link= , title=The Kingdom of Armenia , location=, publisher=Curzon , orig-year=1987 , year=2001, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OR_PHoKZ6ycC&q=tresses , page=151, isbn=9780700714520 {{citation, last=David , first=Arlette , author-link= , editor1-last=David , editor1-first=Arlette , editor1-link= , editor2-last=Milstein , editor2-first=Rachel , editor2-link= , editor3-last=Ornan , editor3-first=Tallay , editor3-link= , chapter=3. Hybridism as a Visual Mark of Divinity: The Case of Akhenaten , title=Picturing Royal Charisma: Kings and Rulers in the Near East from 3000 BCE to 1700 CE , publisher=Archaeopress Publishing Limited , year=2016 , chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YPXAEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA53 , at=pp. 52–53 and Table 3.1 , isbn=9781803271613 {{cite book, last=Fox-Davies , first=Arthur , author-link=Arthur Fox-Davies , title=A Complete Guide to Heraldry , location=London , publisher=T.C. and E.C. Jack , year=1909 , url=https://archive.org/details/completeguidetoh00foxduoft/page/222/mode/2up , pages=222–224 {{cite book, last=Delaporte , first=Louis-Joseph , author-link=Louis-Joseph Delaporte , title=Catalogue des cylindres, cachets et pierres gravées de style oriental : Musée du Louvre , location=Paris , publisher=Hachette , date=1920 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hPpKAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA49 , page=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). {{cite book, last=Fishbane , first=Michael A. , author-link=Michael Fishbane , title=Biblical Myth and Rabbinic Mythmaking , location= , publisher=Oxford University Press , date=2005 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6qZg42W9EFcC&pg=PA45 , pages=45–46 , isbn=9780199284207 {{cite book, last=Friar , first=Stephen , author-link= , title=A New Dictionary of Heraldry , year=1987 , publisher=Alphabooks/A & C Black , location=London , isbn=978-0-906670-44-6 , page=173 {{cite book, last1=Griffith , first1=F. Ll , author1-link=Francis Llewellyn Griffith , last2=Newberry , first2=Percy Edward , author2-link=Percy Edward Newberry , others=Appended by George Willoughby Fraser , title=El Bersheh , volume=2 , publisher=Sold at the Offices of the Egypt Exploration Fund , date=1895 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Vn4DUtFC18C&pg=PA34 , at=pp. 34–35 an
Pl. XVI
tomb no. 5 , quotation=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" {{cite book, last=Gualandri , first=Isabella , author-link= , chapter=8. Sidonius' Intersexuality , editor-last=Kelly , editor-first=Gavin , editor-link= , title=Edinburgh Companion to Sidonius Apollinaris , location= , publisher=Edinburgh University Press , date=2020 , chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W6QxEAAAQBAJ&q=griffin&pg=PA296 , page=296 , isbn=9781474461702 {{cite book, last=Hand , first=Wayland D. , author-link=Wayland D. Hand , title=Magical Medicine: The Folkloric Component of Medicine in the Folk Belief, Custom, and Ritual of the Peoples of Europe and America , location= , publisher=University of California Press , year=2021 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CODrDwAAQBAJ&dq=griffin+feather&pg=PA298 , page=298 , isbn=9780520306783 {{citation, last=Henning , first=W. B. , author-link=Walter Bruno Henning , title=Two Manichæan Magical Texts with an Excursus on the Parthian Ending -ēndēh , journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London , volume=12 , number=1 , year=1947 , pages=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
/ref> {{cite book, ref={{SfnRef, Herodotus, Godley tr., 1921 , author=Herodotus , author-link=Herodotus , editor-last=Godley , editor-first=A. D. , editor-link=Alfred Denis Godley , editor-mask=Godley, A. D. (ed., tr.) , title=The History of Herodotus , volume=2 , location= , publisher=W. Heinemann , date=1921 , isbn=9780674991309 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bR0MAAAAIAAJ&q=argolic&pg=PA355 , at=IV.152 (2: 355) {{cite book, ref={{SfnRef, Herodotus, Rawlinson tr., 1909 , author=Herodotus , author-link=Herodotus , translator-last=Rawlinson , translator-first=George , translator-link=George Rawlinson , title=The History of Herodotus , volume=2 , location=New York , publisher=Tandy-Thomas , date=1909 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N084AQAAMAAJ&q=griffins , at=III.16, IV.13 (pp. 146, 192) {{cite book, last=Hirst , first=G. M. , author-link=Gertrude Mary Hirst , title=The Cults of Olbia , location= , publisher=Columbia University , date=1902 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HPlMAQAAMAAJ&q=griffin&pg=PA259 , pages=259–260 {{cite book, author=Isidore of Seville , author-link=Isidore of Seville , translator-last=Throop , translator-first=Priscilla , translator-link= , title=Isidore of Seville's Etymologies: Complete English Translation , volume=2 , location= , publisher=MedievalMS , year=2005 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6jjsJ9NP6hYC&q=griffin&pg=PT45 , at=xii.2.17 , isbn=9781411665262 {{citation, last1=Kiperwasser , first1=Reuven , author1-link= , last2=Shapira , first2=Dan D. Y. , author2-link= , title=Irano-Talmudica II: Leviathan, Behemoth and the 'Domestication' of Iranian Mythological Creatures in Eschatological Narratives of the Babylonian Talmud , editor1-last=Secunda , editor1-first=Shai , editor1-link= , editor2-last=Fine, editor2-first=Steven , editor2-link=Steven Fine , work=Shoshannat Yaakov: Jewish and Iranian studies in honor of Yaakov Elman , publisher=Brill , date=2012 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kSgyAQAAQBAJ&q=griffin&pg=PA209 , page=209 and n22 , isbn=9789004235458 {{citation, last=Künzl , first=Ernst , author-link=:de:Ernst Künzl , editor1-last=Bintliff , editor1-first=John , editor1-link= , editor2-last=Rutter , editor2-first=N. K. , editor2-link= , chapter=13 Life on Earth and Death from Heaven: The Golden Pectoral of the Scythian King from the Tolstaya Mogila (Ukraine) , title=Archaeology of Greece and Rome: Image, Text and Context. Studies In Honour of Anthony Snodgrass , publisher=Edinburgh University Press , year=2016, chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7C1WDwAAQBAJ&q=griffins&pg=PA331 , pages=331–332, isbn=9781474417105 {{citation, last1=Litvinskij , first1=Boris A. , author1-link=:ru:Литвинский, Борис Анатольевич , last2=Pičikian , first2=Igor R. , author2-link= , title=An Achaemenian griffin handle from the Temple of the Oxus: the makhaira in Northern Bactria , editor-last=Invernizzi , editor-first=Antonio , editor-link= , work=In the Land of the Gryphons: Papers on Central Asian Archaeology in Antiquity , publisher=Le lettere , date=1995 , url= , page=123 , isbn=9788871662480 {{cite journal, last=Litvinskij , first=Boris A. , author-link=:ru:Литвинский, Борис Анатольевич , title=Copper cauldrons from Gilgit and Central Asia: more about Saka and Dards and related problems , journal=East and West , volume=52 , number=1–4 , date=2002 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DkMTAQAAMAAJ&q=%22mythical%20bird%22 , page=141 {{cite book, last=Lewis , first=Thomas P. , author-link= , chapter=Singing Bone , title=The Pro/Am Book of Music and Mythology, location= , publisher=Pro/Am Music Resources , year=2021 , chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LAM8AQAAIAAJ&q=griffin , pages=721–723, isbn=9780912483511 {{cite book, last=Longfellow , first=Henry Wadsworth , author-link=Henry Wadsworth Longfellow , title=The Writings of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, with Bibliographical and Critical Notes , volume=10 , location=Cambridge, MA , publisher=Riverside Press , year=1886 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K9Q-AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA338 , pages=338, 351–352 {{cite book, author=Pomponius Mela , author-link=Pomponius Mela , editor-last=Romer , editor-first=Frank E. , editor-link= , title=Pomponius Mela's Description of the World , location= , publisher=University of Michigan Press , year=1998, isbn=0472084526 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6AplSod8IDcC&q=griffins&pg=PA68 , at=Book 2.1, p. 68 {{cite web , author-link= , title=Worshiper pouring libation before goddess standing on lion-griffin that draws chariot driven by weather god , website=Morgan Library & Museum , date=6 July 2017 , url=https://www.themorgan.org/seals-and-tablets/83843 , access-date=2023-04-13 {{cite book, last=Oliver , first=Stefan , author-link= , title=Introduction to Heraldry , location= , publisher=Quantum Books , year=1997 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pwWY0qvXoDIC&q=lion%20eagle , pages=44, 69, isbn=1861601433 ; Reprint: David & Charles 2002. {{citation, author=Pliny the Elder , author-link=Pliny , others=translated by John Bostock (physician), John Bostock; Henry Thomas Riley , title=The Natural History of Pliny , location= , publisher=H. 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X.70 (p.539)
} {{cite book, last=Prakash , first=Tara , author-link= , title=Ancient Egyptian Prisoner Statues: Fragments of the Late Old Kingdom , location= , publisher=Lockwood Press , year=2022 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WchDAgAAQBAJ&q=griffin&pg=PA50 , pages=50–51 , isbn=9780892362233 {{citation, author=Pliny the Elder , author-link=Pliny , others=translated by John Bostock (physician), John Bostock; Henry Thomas Riley , title=The Natural History of Pliny , location= , publisher=H. G. Bohn , year=1855 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H72JEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA130 , page=130 , isbn=9781948488884 {{cite book, last1=Quibell , first1=James Edward , author1-link=James Edward Quibell , last2=Green , first2=Frederick Wastie , author2-link= , title=Hierakonpolis ...: Plates of discoveries, 1898-99, with Description of the site in detail , volume=Part II , publisher=B. Quaritch , date=1902 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9TcWAAAAYAAJ&q=griffon&pg=PA41 , at=p. 41 an
Pl. XXVIII
} {{cite encyclopedia , last=Schmidt , first=Hanns-Peter , author-link=Hanns-Peter Schmidt , year=2003 , title=Simorg , encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Iranica , publisher=Mazda Pub , location=Costa Mesa , url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/simorg {{cite book, last=Towne , first=Elana B. , author-link= , chapter=13. Griffin protome , editor1=J. Paul Getty Museum , editor2= Cleveland Museum of Art , title=A Passion for Antiquities: Ancient Art from the Collection of Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman , location= , publisher=J. Paul Getty Museum , year=1994 , chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WchDAgAAQBAJ&q=griffin&pg=PA50 , pages=50–51 , isbn=9780892362233 {{cite book, last=von Volborth , first=Carl-Alexander , author-link=Carl-Alexander von Volborth , title=Heraldry: Customs, Rules and Styles , year=1981 , pages=44–45 , publisher=New Orchard Editions , location=Poole , isbn=978-1-85079-037-2 {{cite book, last=Westgate , first=Ruth , author-link= , chapter=14. Party animals: the imagery of status, power and masculinity in Greek mosaics , editor-last=Lambert , editor-first=S. D. , editor-link= , title=Sociable Man: Essays on Ancient Greek Social Behaviour in Honour of Nick Fisher , location= , publisher=Classical Press of Wales , date=2011, chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EflODgAAQBAJ&q=Apollo+griffin&pg=PA298 , pages=298 , isbn=9781910589212 {{cite book, last=White , first=T. H. , author-link=T. H. White , title=The Book of Beasts: Being a Translation From a Latin Bestiary of the Twelfth Century , year=1992 , orig-year=1954 , pages=22–24 , publisher=Alan Sutton , location=Stroud , isbn=978-0-7509-0206-9 Endnotes, {{URL, 1=https://books.google.com/books?id=fIskVVNHEXoC&pg=PA869 , 2=volume 2, p. 869, to : {{citation, editor1-last=Zipes , editor1-first=Jack , editor1-link=Jack Zipes , editor2-last=Russo , editor2-first=Joseph , editor2-link=, chapter=79. The King of Naples―Lu Re di Napuli , title=The Collected Sicilian Folk and Fairy Tales of Giuseppe Pitrè , volume=1&2, publisher=Routledge , year=2009 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tRgjAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA348 , pages=348–349, isbn=9781135861377 ;Bibliography {{refbegin * {{cite book, last=Álvarez-Mon , first=Javier , author-link= , title=The Golden Griffin from Arjan , editor1-last= Álvarez-Mon , editor1-first=Javier , editor1-link= , editor2-last=Garrison　, editor2-first=Mark B. , editor2-link= , work=Elam and Persia , location=Winona Lake, Indiana , publisher=Eisenbrauns, imprint of Penn State University Press , date=2011 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9JUFEAAAQBAJ&q=griffin&pg=PA320 , pages=299–373 , isbn=9781575066127 * {{cite journal, last=Benson , first=J. 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P. , authorlink= , title=Aristeas of Proconnesus , publisher=Clarendon Press , date=1962 , url= * {{cite book , last=Costello , first=Peter , authorlink=Peter Costello (author) , title=The Magic Zoo , location=New York , publisher=Sphere Books , date=1979 , isbn=9780722125533 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L3WBAAAAMAAJ&q=griffins * {{cite book , last=Delplace , first=Christiane , authorlink= , title=Le griffon de l'archaïsme a l'époque impériale: Étude iconographique et essai d'interpretation symbolique , location=Brussels , publisher=Institut historique belge de Rome , date=1980 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=004aAAAAMAAJ&q=griffon , lang=fr * {{cite book , last=Edwards , first=Karen L. , authorlink= , title=Milton and the Natural World: Science and Poetry in Paradise Lost , publisher=Cambridge University Press , date=2005 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ATvDN17q-vIC&q=griffin , isbn=9780521017480 * {{citation, last=Frankfort , first=Henri , author-link=Henri Frankfort , title=Notes on the Cretan Griffin , journal=The Annual of the British School at Athens , volume=37 , date=1936–1937 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IBsKAAAAIAAJ&q=mane , pages=106–122 , doi=10.1017/S0068245400018025 , jstor=30096666 , s2cid=162323614 * {{citation, last=Franks , first=Hallie Malcolm , author-link= , title=Hunting the Eschata: An Imagined Persian Empire on the Lekythos of Xenophantos , journal=Hesperia , volume=78 , date=2009 , issue=4 , url=https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/uploads/media/hesperia/25622708.pdf , pages=455–480, doi=10.2972/hesp.78.4.455 , s2cid=191569662 * {{cite book , last=Ghirshman , first=Roman , authorlink=Roman Ghirshman , title=The Arts of Ancient Iran: From Its Origins to the Time of Alexander the Great , publisher=Golden Press , date=1964c , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NFgkAQAAMAAJ&q=griffin * {{cite journal, last=Goldman , first=Bernard , author-link=Bernard Goldman , title=The Development of the Lion-Griffin , journal=American Journal of Archaeology , volume=64 , number=4 , publisher= , date=October 1960 , url= , pages=319–328 , doi=10.2307/501330 , jstor=501330 * {{cite book , last=Jantzen , first=Ulf , authorlink=:de:Ulf Jantzen , title=Griechische Greifenkessel , location=Berlin , publisher= , date=1955 , url=, abbreviated ''GG''. * {{cite journal, last=Leibovitch , first=J. , author-link= , title=Quelques éléments de la décoration égyptienne sous le Nouvel Empire : Le Griffon , journal=Bulletin de l'institut d'Égypte , volume=25 , date=1942 , url= , pages=183–203 , lang=fr * {{cite journal , last=Maxwell-Hyslop, first=K. R. , authorlink=Rachel Maxwell-Hyslop , title=Urartian Bronzes in Etruscan Tombs , journal=Iraq , volume=18 , number=2 , publisher= , date=Autumn 1956 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GgrKlM3XWpkC&q=griffin , pages=150–167, doi=10.2307/4199609 , jstor=419960, s2cid=163723570 * {{cite book , last=Mayor , first=Adrienne , authorlink=Adrienne Mayor , title=The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times , isbn=978-0691150130 , orig-year=2000 , year=2011 , publisher=Princeton University Press , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NmCLOcvMnqwC&q=griffin * {{cite journal, last1=Mayor , first1=Adrienne , author1-link=Adrienne Mayor , last2=Heaney , first2=Michael , author2-link= , title=Griffins and Arimaspeans , journal=Folklore , date=1993 , volume=104 , issue=1–2 , pages=40–66 , doi=10.1080/0015587X.1993.9715853 , jstor=1260795 * {{cite book, last=Mayor , first=Adrienne , authorlink=Adrienne Mayor , title=Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws , publisher=Princeton University Press , year=2022 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cQpUEAAAQBAJ&q=griffin&pg=PA46 , page= , isbn=0691211183 * {{cite book, last=McCulloch , first=Florence , author-link= , title=Mediaeval Latin and French Bestiaries , location=Chapel Hill , publisher=University of North Carolina Press , year=1962 , orig-year=1960 , edition=revised , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YJzfAAAAMAAJ&q=griffin , pages=122–123 , isbn=9780807890332 , series=North Carolina Studies in Romance Languages and Literatures 33 [ Reprint], C. 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Potter, 1976 * {{cite book, last=Millington , first=Ellen J. , authorlink= , title=Heraldry in History, Poetry, and Romance , publisher=Chapman and Hall , year=1858 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jPRsAAAAMAAJ , page= * {{cite book, last=Nigg , first=Joe , author-link= , title=The Book of Gryphons: A History of the Most Majestic of All Mythical Creatures , location=Cambridge, Massachusetts , publisher=Applewood Books , year=1982 , url= , page= , isbn=978-0918222374 , quotation= * {{cite book, last=Nigg , first=Joe , author-link= , author-mask=2, title=The Book of Fabulous Beasts: A Treasury of Writings from Ancient Times to the Present , location= , publisher=Oxford University Press , year=1999 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qonfAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Christian+allegory%22+griffin , page= , isbn=9780195095616 , quotation=Isidore's entries contain traditional folkloric material, but without Christian allegory * {{cite book, last=Papalexandrou , first=Nassos , authorlink= , title=Bronze Monsters and the Cultures of Wonder: Griffin Cauldrons in the Preclassical Mediterranean , publisher=University of Texas Press , year=2021 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vNgkEAAAQBAJ&q=griffin , page= , isbn=9781477323632 * {{cite journal , last=Phillips , first=E. D. , authorlink= , title=The Legend of Aristeas: Fact and Fancy in Early Greek Notions of East Russia, Siberia, and Inner Asia , journal=Artibus Asiae, volume=18 , number=2 , publisher= , date=1955 , url= , pages=161–177 , doi=10.2307/3248792 , jstor=3248792 *{{cite journal, last=Riefstahl , first=Elizabeth , author-link=Elizabeth Titzel Riefstahl , title=Nemesis and the Wheel of Fate , journal=Brooklyn Museum Bulletin , volume=17 , number=3 , date=Spring 1956 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jFvVAAAAIAAJ&q=Griffin , pages=1–7 , jstor=26458409 * {{cite book, last=South , first=Malcolm , authorlink= , title=Mythical and Fabulous Creatures: A Source Book and Research , publisher=Bloomsbury Academic , year=1987 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2o3fAAAAMAAJ&q=griffin , page= , isbn=9780313243387 * {{cite journal , last = Taheri , first = Sadreddin , author-link= , year = 2013 , title = ''Gopat'' and ''Shirdal'' in the Ancient Middle East , journal=Honar-Ha-Ye-Ziba: Honar-Ha-Ye-Tajassomi , script-journal =ar:نشریه هنرهای زیبا- هنرهای تجسمی , volume = 17 , issue = 4 , pages = 13–22 , doi = 10.22059/jfava.2013.30063 , url=https://jfava.ut.ac.ir/article_30063_5abcc4dbcc0615f8499fb069c0ffb4a7.pdf?lang=en , lang=fa {{refend

External links

{{Commons category, Griffins * {{cite EB9 , wstitle = Griffin , volume= XI , page=195 , short=1 {{refbegin
The Gryphon Pages
a repository of griffin lore and information

source texts in Greek, Hebrew, and Old English, with new English translations. * {{Skeptoid , id=4442 , number= 442, title= Griffins, date=November 25, 2014 , last= Haupt, first=Ryan , access-date= {{refend {{Heraldic creatures {{Authority control Griffins, Egyptian legendary creatures European legendary creatures Greek legendary creatures Heraldic beasts Mythological birds of prey Mythological hybrids Fairy tale stock characters

Overview

Nomenclature

Etymology

Persian names

Egyptian names

Form

Cauldron figurines

Tendrils

Top-knob

Warts

Art in antiquity

Mesopotamia

Iran

Egypt

Near East elsewhere

Greece

Central Asia

Ancient parallels

Classical accounts

Herodotus, etc.

Gryphons of India and gold-digging ants

Pliny and later

Divine creature

Medieval accounts

Christian symbolism

Claw, egg, feather

Medieval iconography

Folklore

In heraldry

Houses and cities using the device

Variants

Hippogriff

Heraldic subtypes

Wingless griffin

Sea-griffin

Opinicus

In architecture

In fiction

Theories of origin

Possible influence by dinosaurs

Modern culture

Popular fiction

Modern art

Logos, mascots

School emblems and mascots

Police and military

Professional sports

Amusement parks

In film and television

Eponymy

Fauna names

Gallery

See also

Explanatory notes

References

Further reading

External links