griffin

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

Pliny the Elder (1st century) was the first to state explicitly that griffins were winged and long eared. But Apollonius of Tyana wrote that griffins did not have true bird wings, but membranous webbed feet that only gave them the capability of short-distanced flight. Writers after Aelian (3rd century AD) did not add much new material to griffin lore, except for the later idea that griffins deposited agate stone among the eggs in their nest.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

Pliny placed the griffins in Æthiopia and Ctesias (5th century BC) in greater India. Scholars have observed that legends about the gold-digging ants of India may have contaminated griffin lore.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

In the Christian era, Isidore of Seville (7th century AD) wrote that griffins were a great enemy of horses. This notion may have developed from the tradition that horseback-riding Arimaspians raided the griffin gold.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

File:Abderacoin.png. Abdera ({{circa}} 450–430BC).}}{{efn|Abdera minted coins since it was founded in 544 BC as a colony of Teos, which also used the griffin motif.}}}}]]

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

It could also have been an Anatolian loan word derived from a Semitic language; compare the Hebrew {{lang|he|כרוב}} kərúv.William H. C. Propp, Exodus 19–40, volume 2A of The Anchor Bible, New York: Doubleday, 2006, {{ISBN|0-385-24693-5}}, p. 386; citing Julius Wellhausen, Prolegomena to the History of Israel, Edinburgh: Black, 1885, p. 304.Also see Robert S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, volume 1, Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2010 {{ISBN|978-90-04-17420-7}}, p. 289, entry for {{lang|el|γρυπος}}, "From the archaeological perspective, origin in Asia Minor (and the Near East: Elam) is very probable."

File:Jam-sasani.jpg.]]

In the modern Persian language, the griffin has come to be called šērdāl ({{langx|fa|{{linktext|شیردال}}}}), meaning 'lion-eagle'. However, the practice of referring to ancient Iranian griffin objects or monuments as sherdal,{{sfnp|Taheri|2013}} 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 Sēnmurw in Sasanian culture was a fabulous composite creature, and Russian archaeologist {{interlanguage link|Boris Anatolʹevič Litvinskij|ru|Литвинский, Борис Анатольевич|lt=Boris A. Litvinskij}} 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, which is generally regarded as a mythological bird (rather than a composite) in later medieval Persian literature,{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Also, Sēnmurw etymological root was Avestan mərəγō saēnō (marəya saēna) which also denoted a bird (falcon or eagle), and not a composite, as conceded by Litvinskij.}} though some argue that this bird may have originated from the Mesopotamian lion-griffin.{{Refn|{{citation|last=Harper |first=P. O. |author-link= |title=The Sēnmurw |journal=Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin |series=Series 2 |volume=20 |date=1961 |issue=3 |pages=95–101|doi=10.2307/3257932 |jstor=3257932 }} apud Schmidt.}}

There is also the Armenian term Paskuč ({{langx|hy|պասկուչ}}) that had been used to translate Greek gryp 'griffin' in the Septuagint,{{Refn|{{citation|last=Marr |first=N. Ya. |author-link=Nikolai Marr |title=Ossetica-Japhetica |journal=Izvestiya Rossiskoi Akademii Nauk |script-journal=ru:Известия Российской академии наук |date=1918 |page=2087, n. 2}} apud Schmidt.}} 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 cosmological text Bundahishn XXIV (supposedly distinguishable from Sēnmurw which also appears in the same text). Middle Persian Paškuč is also attested in Manichaean magical texts (Manichaean Middle Persian: pškwc), and this must have meant a "griffin or a monster like a griffin" according to W. B. Henning.

The griffin was given names which were descriptive epithets, such as {{transliteration|egy|tštš}}{{efn|{{transliteration|egy|tštš}}: t:S t:S The "š" glyph seems to be 𓈚 rathe than 𓈙 and are thus superposed in Leibovitch's inline text; however the glyps are juxtaposed and seemingly the plain bar "š" is used on his Fig. 5 line sketch.}} or tesh-tesh meaning "Tearer[-in-pieces]"{{Refn|{{harvp|Riefstahl|1956|p=2}} citing Leibovitch.}} inscribed on a griffin image found in a tomb at Deir El Bersha;{{Refn|{{harvp|Leibovitch|1942|pp=186–187}} and Fig. 5: "{{lang|fr|tštš.. signifie déchirer, triturer, couper, metter en pièces}} [tštš.. denotes tearing, grind up, chopping, ripping to pieces]". Citing {{harvp|Griffith|Newberry|1895}} El-Bersheh 2: Pl. XVI, tomb no. 5.}}{{Refn|David glosses {{transliteration|egy|tštš}} as "Crusher", which is consistent with one of Leibovitch's several glosses.}} and {{transliteration|egy|sfr}}/{{transliteration|egy|srf}} "fiery one", attested at Beni Hasan{{sfnp|Leibovitch|1942|pp=186–187}}{{Refn|David, citing Newberry (1893a, 1893b recte [1893], [1894]). Beni Hasan.}} (compare Hebrew saráf). The descriptive epithet "Tearer" is not uniquely applied to the griffin beast, and {{transliteration|egy|tštš}} ({{transliteration|egy|Teš-teš}}) has also been used to denote the god Osiris elsewhere.{{sfnp|Leibovitch|1942|p=187}}{{Refn|The epithet "the Crusher" (or "Trampler") is also given by {{harvp|Riefstahl|1956|p=2}} citing Leibovitch, but the words do not actually occur as names/epithets in Leibovitch's reading of the inscription: "{{lang|fr|Spdw le seigneur des pays montagne, qui écrase (en les piétinant)}}　Sopdu the lord of the mountain countries, who crushes (trampling them)". The inscription is from Sahure (pharaoh of Fifth Dynasty of Egypt).{{sfnp|Leibovitch|1942|pp=186}} A relief represents Sahure as an enemy-trampling griffin in the reliefs work found in his pyramid complex.}}

{{See also|#Medieval iconography|#Variants}}

File:Bronzen griffioen ForumHadriani 198894 RMO Leiden.jpg

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

The griffin of Greece, as depicted in cast{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|The cast pieces could also have additional hammered details.{{harvp|Benson|1960|p=60}} et passim. The "cast protomes" are grouped by Jantzen.Third Group GG, p. 56 apud {{harvp|Benson|1960|pp=59–60}}. }} bronze cauldron protomes (cf. below), has a squat face with short beaks{{efn|The beaks on the Greeks are identified as "visor" of beasts such as seen in Urartian art, by {{harvp|Ghirshman|1964c|p=108}}.}} that are open agape as if screaming, with the tongue showing.{{sfnp|Goldman|1960|p=321}} There is also a "top-knob" on its head or between the brows.{{sfnp|Goldman|1960|p=321}}

File:Villa Poniatowski 63.jpg of Villa Giulia, Rome.}}{{sfnp|Ghirshman|1964c|p=434}}}}]]

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.{{sfnp|Goldman|1960|p=321}}{{sfnp|Jantzen|1955|pp=20, 69–70}}{{efn|The example on figure right is the broken off head, and it is not certain whether the paired spiral-locks ran down its neck, as in other examples of griffin protomes from Olympia (Jantzen, GG no. 80, p. 20).}} The tendril motif emerged at the beginning of the first millennium, BC., in various parts of the Orient.{{sfnp|Goldman|1960|p=322}} The "double spiral of hair running downwards from the base of the ear" is said to be a hallmark of Iranian (Uratrian) art.{{sfnp|Ghirshman|1964c|p=108}} The Etruscan cauldron-griffins (e.g., from {{interlanguage link|Barberini tomb|it|Tomba Barberini}}, figure right{{efn|See the cover photo of this cauldron in {{harvp|Papalexandrou|2021}} and {{URL|1=https://books.google.com/books?id=vNgkEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT211 |2=Fig. 3.2}}. The lateral side of the griffins are hard to see on this picture shown right; the lions do not have these hanging tresses. Cf. {{URL|1=https://books.google.com/books?id=vNgkEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT213 |2=Fig. 3.3}} for another cauldron, from the {{interlanguage link|Bernardini tomb|it|Tomba Bernardini}}. Both are bronze cauldrons on a conical stand.}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|An additional example of Etruscan griffin is the one found in Vetulonia, Italy.{{harvp|Papalexandrou|2021}}, Fig. 3.6 }}) also bear the "curled tresses" that are the signature of Uratrian workmanship.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|While Maxwell-Hyslop, thought early griffin protomes were made in the east, she regarded later Etruscan examples as being made locally, imitating the Eastern originals, but such "Vannic (Urartrians) originals" are yet to be found.{{sfnp|Goldman|1960|pp=320–321}}}} Even the ornate crests on Minoan griffins (such as the fresco of the Throne Room, figure top of page) may be a development of these curled tresses.{{harvp|Goldman|1960|p=322}} and note 22.{{efn|In addition to the Throne Room, Goldman provides the following Mycenaean examples: the "ivory plaque of Mycenae" (Demargne, Pierre (1947), La Crète dédalique, fig. 24); the "gold cylinder seal from Pylos" (Blegen, Carl W. (5 December 1953). "A Royal Tomb of Homeric Times", Illustrated London News, fig. 7)}}

One prominent characteristic of the cauldron griffins is the "top-knob between the brows"{{sfnp|Goldman|1960|p=321}} (seemingly situated at the top of the head{{Refn|The positioning is between the brows, yet looks to be at the top of the head, as seen on the example {{harvp|Goldman|1960|p=324}} provides: Plate 90, fig. 1 (adapted from GG 75).}}).

The top-knob feature has clear oriental origins.{{harvp|Goldman|1960|p=321}}: "the top-knob on the cauldron griffin is a straight-forward carryover from its oriental counterparts". Jack Leonard Benson says these appendages were "topknots" subsequently rendered as "knobs" in later development of the cauldron Griffins.{{sfnp|Benson|1960|p=63}} Benson's emphasis is that the Greeks attached a stylized "anorganic" topknot{{sfnp|Benson|1960|p=63}} or an "inorganic" plug on the griffin's head (due to lack of information),{{sfnp|Benson|1960|p=63}}{{efn|Benson thinks using a simplified "plug" shape was the Greek "solution" to the problem of not knowing exactly what 3-dimensional shape to use, having only access to 2-dimensional renderings from the East.}} while in contrast, a known oriental example (stone protomes from Nimrud) is simple but more "plausible" (naturalistic), resembling a forelock.{{harvp|Benson|1960|p=62}} and Fig. 5, griffin protome of stone, from Nimrud.

A cluster of "warts" between the eyes are also mentioned.{{Refn|Examples of GG no. 14,{{sfnp|Goldman|1960|p=321}}}} One conjecture is that these derive from the bumps (furrows) on a lion's snout.{{harvp|Goldman|1960|p=321}}: "wart-like protuberances between the eyes..natural property of the lion". An example from the east is given as Fig. 10: "Lion-griffin. Middle Assyrian (after Corpus 596)". Another view regards the wart as deriving from the bumpy cockscomb on a rooster or other such fowls.{{sfnp|Benson|1960|p=64}}

{{multiple image

| align = right

| total_width = 400

| image1 = Delaporte(1920)-Catalogue Louvres-pl45-n02-aigle-lion.jpg

| alt1 = Griffin seal impression. Susa, Iran. 4th millennium B.C..

| caption1 = Griffin seal impression. {{right|{{small|—Susa, Iran. 4th millennium B.C.). Louvres.}}{{sfnp|Frankfort|1936–1937|p=106}}}}

| image2 = VAM - Luristan Greife.jpg

| alt2 = Bronze griffins from ancient Luristan, Iran, 1st millennium BC. Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin.

| caption2 = Bronze griffins from ancient Luristan, Iran, 1st millennium BC.{{right|{{small|—Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin}}}}

}}

Griffin-like animals were depicted on cylinder seals in Mesopotamia {{circa}} 3000 BC,{{cite AV media |title=Image of Persian griffin |publisher=The Granger Collection |website=granger.com |medium=picture |url=http://www.granger.com/results.asp?image=0018458&screenwidth=977 |access-date=26 May 2014}} perhaps as early as the Uruk period (4000–3100BC) and subsequent Proto-Elamite (Jemdet Nasr) period.{{sfnp|Frankfort|1936–1937|p=106}} An example of a winged lion with beaks, unearthed in Susa (cf. fig. right) dates to the 4th millennium B.C., and is a unique example of a griffin-like animal with a male lion's mane.{{sfnp|Frankfort|1936–1937|p=106}} However, this monster then ceased to continue to be expressed after the Elamite culture.{{sfnp|Frankfort|1936–1937|p=106}}

What the Sumerians of the Early Dynastic period portrayed instead were winged lions, and the lion-headed eagle (Imdugud).{{sfnp|Frankfort|1936–1937|p=107}}

In the Akkadian Empire that succeeded Sumer, early examples (from early 3rd millennium BC) of lions with bird heads appeared on cylinder seals, shown pulling the chariots for its rider, the weather god.{{Refn|Fishbane's example from early 3rd millennium BC is a four-wheeled chariot, citing Pritchard. There is another four-wheeled chariot which generally match the description, held by the Morgan Library (shelfmark Morgan Seal 220), dated to between 2340 and 2150 BC.}}{{Refn|Frankfort's example is a two-wheeled chariot in the seal-impression image shown on Fig. 4.{{sfnp|Frankfort|1936–1937|p=107}}}} The "lion-griffin" on Akkadian seals are also shown as fire-belching, and shaggy (at the neck) in particular examples.{{harvp|Goldman|1960|p=324}} and pl. 90, fig. 15{{Refn|Frankfort classed it as a "winged, tailed, and taloned dragon which spat fire".{{sfnp|Frankfort|1936–1937|p=107}}}}

The bronzeworks of Luristan, the North and North West region of Iran in the Iron Age, include examples of Achaemenid art depicting both the "bird-griffin" and "lion-griffin" designs, such as are found on horse-bits.{{sfnp|Álvarez-Mon|2011|p=320}}{{sfnp|Taheri|2013}} Bernard Goldman maintains the position that Luristan examples must be counted as developments of the "lion-griffin" type, even when it exhibits "stylization .. approaching the beak of a bird".{{harvp|Goldman|1960|p=324}} and Pl. 90, Fig. 12 "Luristan lion head" (which has the beak-like feature) The Luristan griffin-like creatures resemble and perhaps are descended from Assyrian creatures, possibly influenced by Mitannian animals,{{sfnp|Goldman|1960|p=324}}Cf. {{harvp|Frankfort|1936–1937|p=110}}: "The immediate source of non-Mesopotamian motives in Assyrian art is the kingdom of Mitan"; "The griffin is as common in Mitannian (Figs. 21, 22) as in Assyrian art, and the question arises whether it was peculiar to the ephemereal kingdom, or reached it from one of the sources". or perhaps there had been parallel development in both Assyrian and Elamite cultures.{{sfnp|Álvarez-Mon|2011|p=320}}

Bird-headed mammal images appeared in art of the Achaemenian Persian Empire. Russian jewelry historian Elena Neva maintained that the Achaemenids considered the griffin "a protector from evil, witchcraft, and secret slander",{{cite web |last=Neva |first=Elena |author-link= |date=12 March 2008 |title=Central Asian Jewelry and their Symbols in Ancient Time |website=Artwis |url=http://www.artwis.com/articles/central-asian-jewelry-and-their-symbols-in-ancient-time/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140725171007/http://www.artwis.com/articles/central-asian-jewelry-and-their-symbols-in-ancient-time/ |archive-date=25 July 2014 |url-status=usurped |postscript=;}} who cites {{cite journal |last=Pugachenkova |first=G. |author-link=Galina Pugachenkova |year=1959 |title=Grifon v drevnem iskusstve central'noi Azii |script-title=ru:Грифон в древнем искусстве центральной Азии |trans-title=Griffin in the ancient art of Central Asia |journal=Sovetskya Arheologia |volume=2 |pages=70, 83}} but no writings exist from Achaemenid Persia to support her claim. R.L. Fox (1973) remarks that a "lion-griffin" attacks a stag in a pebble mosaic at Pella, from the 4th century BC,{{cite book |first=R.L. |last=Fox |author-link=Robin Lane Fox |title=Alexander the Great |year=1973 |page=31, & notes on p. 506}}{{cite web |url=http://greecefsp2009.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/dsc_0175.jpg |title=Dartmouth College expedition to Greece |type=image |date=May 2009}} perhaps serving as an emblem of the kingdom of Macedon or a personal emblem of Antipater, one of Alexander's successors.

A golden frontal half of a griffin-like animal from the Ziwiye hoard (near Saqqez city) in Kurdistan province, Iran resembles the western protomes in style.{{harvp|Benson|1960|p=63}} and Pl. 2, #3 (monochrome photograph){{efn|Ghirshman (and others, cf. {{harvp|Maxwell-Hyslop|1956|p=160}}, citing André Godard.) thought the Ziwiye griffin was a protome to a lost cauldron. Goldman thinks this unlikely, as the animal is posed in couchant position, and gold is too soft a metal.}} They were of Urartian 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.Ghirshman (1958) BibO 15 p. 259, apud {{harvp|Goldman|1960|p=319}}, note 3 The animal is described as having a "visor" (i.e., beaks) made by Urartian craftsmen, similar to what is found on Greek protomes.{{sfnp|Ghirshman|1964c|p=108}}

Representations of griffin-like hybrids with four legs and a beaked head appeared in Ancient Egyptian art dating back to before 3000 BC.{{cite web |title=Griffin |series=Illustrated Dictionary of Egyptian Mythology |website=Buffaloah.com |url=http://buffaloah.com/a/archsty/egypt/illus/illus.html#Griffin |access-date=2 January 2012}} The oldest known depiction of a

griffin-like animal in Egypt appears as a relief carving on slate on the cosmetic palette from Hierakonpolis,{{Refn|{{harvp|Leibovitch|1942|pp=184–185}} and Fig 3 (detail of griffin-like beast), citing {{harvp|Quibell|Green|1902}}}} the 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.{{cite book |last=Patch |first=Diana |year=2012 |title=Dawn of Egyptian Art |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tfkvlD4Pi20C&pg=PA140 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |pages=139–140 |isbn=978-0300179521 |access-date= 24 May 2014}}

Griffin-type creatures combining raptor heads and mammalian bodies were depicted in the Levant, Syria, and Anatolia during the Middle Bronze Age,{{cite book |last=Teissier |first=Beatrice |year=1996 |title=Egyptian Iconography on Syro-Palestinian Cylinder Seals of the Middle Bronze Age |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oiSoxUE_Vn0C&pg=PA88 |publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht |pages=88–90 |isbn=978-3525538920 |access-date= 24 May 2014}}{{cite book |last1=Aruz |first1=Joan |last2=Benzel |first2=Kim |last3=Evans |first3=Jean M. |date=2008 |title=Beyond Babylon: Art, trade, and diplomacy in the second millennium B.C. |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_gr5BgOwEJicC |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_gr5BgOwEJicC/page/n163 137] |isbn=978-1588392954 |access-date= 24 May 2014}} dated at about 1950–1550 BC.{{cite book |last=Teissier |first=Beatrice |year=1996 |title=Egyptian Iconography on Syro-Palestinian Cylinder Seals of the Middle Bronze Age |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oiSoxUE_Vn0C&pg=PA5 |publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht |pages=5–6 |isbn=978-3525538920 |access-date= 24 May 2014}}

{{see also|#Divine creature}}

File:Tripode.jpg protome){{right|{{small|—Olympia, Greece. 7th century BC. Olympia museum}}}}|upright]]

Griffin-type animals appeared in the art of ancient Crete in the MM III Period (1650–1600 BC) in Minoan chronology, found on sealings from Zakro and miniature frescos dated to this period.{{sfnp|Frankfort|1936–1937|p=113}} One early example of griffin-types in Minoan art occurs in the 15th century BC frescoes of the Throne Room of the Bronze Age Palace of Knossos, as restored by Sir Arthur Evans.

The griffin-like hybrid became a fixture of Aegean culture since the Late Bronze Age,{{sfnp|Benson|1960|p=58}} but the animal called the gryps, gryphon, or griffin in Greek writings 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 art.{{sfnp|Benson|1960|p=58}}{{harvp|Goldman|1960|p=326}}: "the griffin-headed bird appears in the orientalizing phase of seventh century B.C. Greek art". It became quite popular in the 6th and 5th centuries BC, when the Greeks first began to record accounts of the "gryps" creature from travelers to Asia, such as Aristeas of Proconnesus. A number of bronze griffin protomes on cauldrons have been unearthed in Greece (on Samos, and at Olympia, etc., cf. fig. right).{{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{{harvp|Maxwell-Hyslop|1956|p=156}} viewed later examples to have been western, copied from eastern "originals" (cited by {{harvp|Goldman|1960|pp=319–320}}) , as shall be iterated below.) the griffin-ornamented cauldron, in its entirely, were crafted in the East, though excavated finds from the Orient are scarce.Jantzen (1951). "Die Bedeutung der Greifenprotomen aus dem Heraion von Samos". Festschrift für Hans Jantzen; also {{harvp|Jantzen|1955}} GG. Cited by {{harvp|Goldman|1960|p=319}}{{harvp|Benson|1960|p=58}}, and note 2, naming/citing {{harvp|Maxwell-Hyslop|1956}}, pp. 150ff. and Pierre Amandry (1958) "Objets orientaux..", pp. 73ff.

In Central Asia, the griffin image was included in Scythian "animal style" artifacts of the 6th–4th centuries BC, but no writings explain their meaning.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}} The Golden Pectoral from Tovsta Mohyla, interred in Scythian king's burial site, perhaps commissioned to Greek goldsmiths, who engraved the image of a griffin attacking a horse. Other Scythian artifacts show griffins attacking horses, stags, and goats. Griffins are typically shown attacking horses, deer, and humans in Greek art. Nomads were said to steal griffin-guarded gold according to Scythian oral traditions reported by Greek and Roman travelers.

File:Danam letters on Sanchi inscription.jpg from 3rd century BCE]]

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

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

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

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

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

Local lore on the gryps or griffin was gathered by Aristeas of Proconnesus, a Greek who traveled to the Altai region between Mongolia and NW China in the 7th century BC. Although Aristeas's original poem was lost, the gryps lore was 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 griffin supposedly dwelled further north than the one-eyed Arimaspi people{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|But "Herdotus doubted that Arimaspeans were monocular". The Scythian word "arimasp" signifies "rich in horses rather than one-eyed{{Sfnp|Mayor|Heaney|1993|loc=n9}}}} who robbed the gold from the fabulous creatures. Aristeas is said to have been informed through the Issedones people, who neighbored the region of the Arimaspi in the northern extremes (of Central Asia).{{Refn|Herodotus III.116, IV.13.}}{{sfnp|Phillips|1955|p=161}} Aeschylus also says 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 gryps to "silent hounds of Zeus"{{sfnp|Phillips|1955|p=163}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|To distinguish from the (screaming) harpies, referred as "dogs of Zeus" (by Apollonius of Rhodes, II.289).}} Since they are called dogs or hounds, scholars have conjectured 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.}}

In contrast to the Greeks, Ctesias located the griffins in India and more explicitly classed them as beaked, four-legged birds.{{sfnp|Mayor|Heaney|1993|p=42}}

Herodotus mentions elsewhere that there are gold-collecting ants in Kashmir, India, and modern scholars have interpreted this account 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 mixed with the lore of the gold-guarding ants of India,{{sfnp|Phillips|1955|p=163}} and later Aelian also inserted attributes of the ant into his description of griffins.{{sfnp|Mayor|Heaney|1993|loc=n9}}

Later, Pliny the Elder became the first to state explicitly that griffins have wings and long ears.{{harvp|Mayor|Heaney|1993|p=42}} and n11, citing Pliny the Elder 10.70.136; 7.2.10{{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, Pliny also wrote, "griffins were said to lay eggs in burrows on the ground and these nests contained gold nuggets".{{harvp|Mayor|Heaney|1993}}, pp. 40, 42 : "Pliny wrote: 'Arimaspeans... are always fighting for gold with the griffins, winged animals whose appearance

is well known. The griffins toss up gold when they make their burrows.'" and n11, citing 11. Pliny the Elder 10.70.136; 7.2.10

Apollonius of Tyana,{{efn|Apollonius of Tyana's writings, as recorded in his biography by Flavius Philostratus.}} who was nearly coeval with Pliny, gave a different account of the griffin, claiming them to be lion-sized and having no true wings, instead having paws "webbed with red membranes" that gave them the ability to make leaps of flight over short distances.{{cite book|ref={{SfnRef|Philostratus|Conybeare tr.|1912}} |translator=F. C. Conybeare |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).{{harvp|Philostratus|Conybeare tr.|1912|loc={{URL|1=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Life_of_Apollonius_of_Tyana/vntFAQAAMAAJ?&gbpv=1&bsq=griffins&pg=PA5|2=vol. II, book VI.I., p. 5}}
{{blockquote|And the griffins of the Indians and the ants of the Ethiopians, though they are dissimilar in form, yet, from what we hear, play similar parts; for in each country they are, according to the tales of poets, the guardians of gold, and devoted to the gold reefs of the two countries.}}}}}}

Pomponius Mela (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, d. 235 AD) added certain other embellishments to the lore, such as describing a griffin with "black plumage on its back with a red chest and white wings".{{Refn|name="aelian"|Aelian De natura animaliumIV , 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 person 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).{{harvp|Mayor|Heaney|1993|loc=n14}}: "Aelian is the last literary text dealing with the griffin considered here; after his account,.. no new information about the gryps was added, except for 'agate eggs'"

The griffin has been associated with various deities (Apollo, Dionysus, Nemesis) in Greek mythography, but here, the identifiable attested "accounts" presented in scholarship are largely not literary, but artisticCf. {{harvp|Riefstahl|1956|p=3}} or numismatic.

The griffin was linked to Apollo, given the existence of the cultus of Hyperborean Apollo, with a cult center at the Greek colony of Olbia on the Black Sea. The main Temple of Apollo at Delphi featured a statue of the god flanked by griffins, or so it is presumed based on its representation on the tetradrachm 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 a griffin is known from multiple examples of red-figure pottery.{{Refn|Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum 202, red-figure cup/kylix, ca. 400–300 BC.{{harvp|Franks|2009|p=469}}, n56, Fig. 5 London, British Museum E 543. red-figure oinochoe.{{harvp|Franks|2009|p=469}}, n56}}{{cite web|title=Red-figure hydria with Apollo riding a griffin, ca. 380–360 B.C. (Object number: 2003-92) |website=Princeton University Art Museum |url=https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/objects/41990 |access-date=2023-07-04}} Apollo also hitched griffins to his chariot, according to Claudian.{{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 a 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 Samos, a griffin-themed bronze "wine-cup" or "cauldron" had been installed, according to Herodotus. The vessel had griffin heads attached around the rim (like the protomes, described above): it was an Argolic or Argive krater, 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)}}

File:A Soldier Fighting A Griffin In The 'Alphonso' Psalter.jpg

File:Stonemasonry with Griffins, late 11th-12th c, Gradina, Rakovac. National Museum of Serbia.png

File:Minneteppich KGM.jpg, {{circa|1450}} CE]]

The notion that griffins lay stones or agate instead of eggs was introduced "at some in the evolution of griffin lore".{{harvp|Mayor|Heaney|1993|loc=n4}} citing {{harvp|Nigg|1982|p=51}} Albertus Magnus (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}}

The account of the "gryphes" by Isidore of Seville (d. 636) lacked any Christian allegorical interpretation, and the griffin is classified as a "beast of prey".{{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 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 (4th and 5th century).Servius's commentary on Virgil's eighth Eclogue (1. 27), accord. to {{harvp|McCulloch|1962|p=122}} Griffins had already been localized Riphean Mountains 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.{{harvp|South|1987|p=89}} citing {{harvp|Costello|1979|pp=73–76}} 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 as a symbol of Jesus, who was both human and divine, espoused by many commentators, who see this evidenced in the griffin that draws the chariot in Dante's Purgatorio (cf. §In literature below).{{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's manuscript (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}}

File:Martin Schongauer, The griffin (15th century).jpg

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 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}}London, Hugh Stanford (1956). Royal Beasts. p. 17 n5 apud {{harvp|Edwards|2005|loc=p. 225 n10}}

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 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.{{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, who also gave Charlemagne the live elephant Abul-Abbas.{{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 located in Charlemagne's former capital of Aix-la-Chapelle (now Aachen, Germany) also houses a griffin horn of Pope Cornelius, made of Asian buffalo horn.{{sfnp|Mayor|2022|p=46}}

File:11th century Byzantine griffins.gif

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.

Griffins also appear on a wide range of medieval luxury objects, such as textiles, and in these contexts are part of a shared visual language deployed by artisans in the Byzantine, western medieval, and Islamic worlds.{{Cite journal |last=McClanan |first=A |date=2019 |title=Illustrious Monsters: Representations of Griffins on Byzantine Textiles |journal=Animals in Text and Textile: Storytelling in the Medieval World, Riggisberger Berichte |volume=23 |pages=133–45}}

According to Stephen Friar's New Dictionary of Heraldry, a griffin's claw was believed to have medicinal properties and one of its feathers could restore sight to the blind.{{Additional citation needed|date=March 2023}}

Attestation of griffin's feather as cure for blindness does occur in an Italian folktale, classed as "The Singing Bone" tale type (ATU 780). There is also a study that considers the griffin's feather tale as a variant of "The Twa Sisters" ballad (Child Ballad 10), as the tale incorporates the song in Italian, supposedly sung by the bones of the murdered finder of the feather). 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.

{{See also|List of griffins as mascots and in heraldry}}

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| 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 of Perugia, 13th century

| caption2 = Griffin segreant wearing the mural crown of Perugia, 13th century

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| 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, Germany, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, 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 Greifswald, Germany, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

| image3 = POL COA Gryf.svg

| alt3 = Gryf coat of arms of the Polish knighthood family Gryfici. Used since c. 1481

| caption3 = The Gryf coat of arms of the knighthood family Gryfici.{{efn|Used since c. 1481 Polish noble families.}}

| image4 = Emblem of Crimea.svg

| alt4 = The Coat of arms of Crimea

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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[d] strength and military, courage and leadership", according to one source. That it became a Christian symbol of divine power 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 terminology as the lion, with the exception that where a lion would be described as rampant a griffin is instead described as segreant.

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.Male griffin depicted in Debrett's Peerage, 1968, p. 222, sinister supporter of Earl of Carrick (Ireland) In some blazons, this variant is termed a keythong.[https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/keythong]. This distinction is not found outside of British heraldry; even within it, male griffins are much rarer than winged ones, which are not given a specific name. One example is John Butler, 6th Earl of Ormond, whose badge was described as featuring a "peyr [pair of] keythongs".{{cite book |author=J[ames] R[obinson] Planché |title=The Pursuivant of Arms, or Heraldry Founded upon Facts |publisher=W. N. Wright [Bookseller to the Queen, 60, Pall Mall] |year=1852 |location=London |page=183 |chapter=Badges |authorlink=James Planché |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/planchepursuivantofarms/page/183/mode/1up}}. It is possible that the male griffin/keythong originated as a derivation of the heraldic panther.

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

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

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

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

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

The opinicus or epimacus is another heraldic variety of griffin, which is depicted with the head and wings of an eagle, the body and legs of a lion, and the tail of a camel. It is sometimes wingless. The opinicus is rarely used in heraldry, but appears in the arms of the Worshipful Company of Barbers.Arthur Fox-Davies, [https://archive.org/details/completeguidetoh00foxduoft A Complete Guide to Heraldry], T.C. and E.C. Jack, London, 1909, pp. 231–232.{{Cite book|title=Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: an Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth|last=Rose|first=Carol|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|year=2001|isbn=0393322114|location=New York|page=279|oclc=48798119}}{{Cite book|title=Fictitious and Symbolic Creatures in Art: With Special Reference to Their Use in British Heraldry|last=Vinycomb|first=John|publisher=Chapman and Hall|year=1906|location=London|page=162}}

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| caption1 = The Pisa Griffin, Pisa Cathedral Museum, 11th century

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| alt2 = Statue of a griffin at St Mark's Basilica in Venice

| caption2 = Statue of a griffin. St Mark's Basilica, Venice

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The Pisa Griffin is a large bronze sculpture that has been in Pisa in Italy since the Middle Ages, though it is of Islamic origin. It is the largest bronze medieval Islamic sculpture known, at over 3 feet tall (42.5 inches, or 1.08 m), and was probably created in the 11th century AD in Al-Andaluz (Islamic Spain).{{cite web |title=The griffon of Pisa |website=Quantara |url=http://www.qantara-med.org/qantara4/public/show_document.php?do_id=1141&lang=en |access-date=15 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326172719/http://www.qantara-med.org/qantara4/public/show_document.php?do_id=1141&lang=en |archive-date=26 March 2012}}Hoffman, 318 From about 1100 it was placed on a column on the roof of Pisa Cathedral until replaced by a replica in 1832; the original is now in the Museo dell' Opera del Duomo (Cathedral Museum), Pisa.

In architectural decoration the griffin is usually represented as a four-footed beast with wings and the head of an eagle with horns, or with the head and beak of an eagle.{{Citation needed|date=May 2007}}

The statues that mark the entrance to the City of London are sometimes mistaken for griffins, but are in fact (Tudor) dragons, the supporters of the city's arms.[https://web.archive.org/web/20040302214758/http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/leisure_heritage/libraries_archives_museums_galleries/clro/pdf/cityarms.PDF The City Arms], City of London Corporation, hosted by webarchive They are most easily distinguished from griffins by their membranous, rather than feathered, wings.

: For fictional characters named Griffin, see Griffin (surname)

Griffins are used widely in Persian poetry; Rumi is one such poet who writes in reference to griffins.The Essential Rumi, translated from Persian by Coleman Barks, p 257

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

File:The red animal story book - plate facing page 004.png, 1899]]

Sir John Mandeville 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}}}}

File:Alice griffin, rabbithole.jpg, Ripon Cathedral, alleged inspiration for the Gryphon in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]

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

File:Hyperborean-gryphon-persepolis-protoceratops-psittacosaurus-skeletons.jpg, a region where Protoceratops and Psittacosaurus skeletons are very common.]]

Adrienne Mayor, a classical folklorist and science historian, speculates that the way the Greeks imagined griffins from the seventh century BC onwards may have been influenced in part by the fossilized remains of beaked dinosaurs such as Protoceratops and Psittacosaurus that ancient Scythian (Central Asian) nomadic prospectors saw on the way to gold deposits.{{cite journal |first=Adrienne |last=Mayor |title=Guardians of The Gold |volume=47 |number=6 |journal=Archaeology Magazine |date=November–December 1994| pages=53–59 |jstor=41766590}}; {{harvp|Mayor|2011|pp=xvii, xxv, 49}}. This speculation is based on Greek and Latin literary sources and related artworks in a specific time frame, beginning with the first written descriptions of griffins as real animals of Asia in a lost work by Aristeas (referenced by Herodotus, ca. 450 BC) and ending with Aelian (3rd century AD), the last ancient author to report any "new" details about the griffin.

Mayor took a paleo-cryptozoological approach, trying to identify the unknown creature by its features: mammalian body but head with raptor's beak, dwelling in Eastern deserts en route to gold deposits, laying eggs in nests on the ground. No living animal matched this description, but some dinosaurs had all these features, raising the question of whether the ancient nomads who told Greeks about griffins could have seen fossils of beaked dinosaurs and nests with eggs. Traffic went both ways on the ancient trade routes; traders and gold seekers traveling west from China recounted tales of these strange creatures that were transmitted to the Greco-Roman world through translators. On their way to the gold-dust-bearing gullies of the Altai ("Gold") Mountains and Tien Shan gold belts, travelers from the east would pass through the Gobi and arrive in Issedonian territory (Issedon Serica and Issedon Scythica, desert stations where the griffin was first described to Greeks), having observed or heard garbled descriptions of strange beaked quadrupeds east of those points.{{harvp|Mayor|2022|pp=23, 25, 27}}

Mayor argues that Protoceratops and other fossils, seen by ancient observers, may have been interpreted as evidence of a half-bird-half-mammal creature.BBC Four television program Dinosaurs, Myths and Monsters, 10 and 13 December 2011 She argues that repeated oral descriptions and artistic attempts to illustrate a bony neck frill (which is rather fragile and may have been broken or entirely weathered away) may have been rendered as large mammal-type external ears, and its beak may have been treated as evidence of a part-bird nature, leading to stylized wings being added to match the creature's avian-like attributes. The narrow, elongated scapula of beaked dinosaurs resembles that of birds, and this avian feature may have suggested to ancient observers that the creature had wings.{{harvp|Mayor|1994||p=58}}; {{harvp|Mayor|2011||pp=49, 71}}

Paleontologist Mark P. Witton contests this hypothesis.Mark Witton, [http://markwitton-com.blogspot.pt/2016/04/why-protoceratops-almost-certainly.html Why Protoceratops Almost Certainly Wasn't The Inspiration For Griffin Legend] Witton and Richard A. Hing argue that it ignores the existence of depictions of hybrid creatures bird's heads on mammal bodies throughout the Near East dating to long before the time Mayor posits the Greeks became aware of Protoceratops fossils in Scythia. They further argue 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. they note 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.{{Cite journal |last1=Witton |first1=Mark P. |last2=Hing |first2=Richard A. |date=2024-06-20 |title=Did the horned dinosaur Protoceratops inspire the griffin? |journal=Interdisciplinary Science Reviews |volume=49 |issue=3–4 |pages=363–388 |language=en |doi=10.1177/03080188241255543 |issn=0308-0188|doi-access=free |bibcode=2024ISRv...49..363W }}

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

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

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

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

In the Harry Potter series, the character Albus Dumbledore has a griffin-shaped knocker. Also, the character Godric Gryffindor's surname is a variation on the French griffon d'or ("golden griffon"), and the school house named after him uses the symbol of a Griffin as their house mascot.

In The Empyrean series by Rebecca Yarros, griffins are the chosen mounts for the fliers of Poromiel.

The griffin appears in French symbolist precursors to the modernist period in the work of Gustave Moreau as noted in his painting of "the Fairy and the Gryphons" ("La fée aux griffons," 1876) shown below.{{cite web | url=https://musee-moreau.fr/fr/collection/objet/fee-aux-griffons-grisaille | title=Fée aux griffons (Grisaille) }}

File:La féé aux griffons.jpg

Through his friendship with Marcel Proust, Jean Cocteau the twentieth-century surrealist artist, writer and filmmaker, became familiar with the paintings of Gustave Moreau.Cocteau parle de Proust: "... la main d'une dame qui aurait touché une rose..." https://www-syscom.univ-mlv.fr/~vignat/Html/Proust/cocteau1.html Whether or not this is related to Cocteau's own rendering of "Le Griffon" which is a 1957 colored lithograph depicting an eagle-headed, winged male dancer in the style of a costume design for les Ballets Russes is unknown, yet clearly shows the lion part of the griffin replaced by the strong physique of the ballet dancer in red tights.{{cite web | url=https://www.artsy.net/artwork/jean-cocteau-le-griffon | title=Jean Cocteau | le griffon (1957) | Artsy }}

File:"Griff" Statue in the forecourt of the Farkasréti Cemetery Budapest.jpg

The griffin is also the symbol of the Philadelphia Museum of Art; bronze castings of them perch on each corner of the museum's roof, protecting its collection.[http://www.philamuseum.org/giving/441-495-380.html Philadelphia Museum of Art – Giving : Giving to the Museum : Specialty License Plates]. Philamuseum.org. Retrieved on 2 January 2012.{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20130511205337/http://www.glasssteelandstone.com/BuildingDetail/472.php Glassteelandstone.com]}}, Philadelphia Museum of Art: Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, Glass Steel and Stone

The "Griff" statue by {{interlanguage link|Veres Kálmán|hu}} was erected in 2007 at the forecourt of the Farkashegyi cemetery in Budapest, Hungary.

{{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, 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 {{interlanguage link|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 (Linear A and Cretan hieroglyphs).}}{{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 uses a griffin for its production company. Merv Griffin Entertainment was founded by entrepreneur Merv Griffin and is based in Beverly Hills, California. His former company Merv Griffin Enterprises also used a griffin for its logo.

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

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

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

Information security firm [https://www.halock.com Halock] uses a griffin to represent protecting data and systems.

{{Further|List of griffins as mascots and in heraldry}}

{{more citations needed|section|date=September 2017}}

File:FASTWÜRMS - Gryphon.jpg]]

Three gryphons form the crest of Trinity College, Oxford (founded 1555), originating from the family crest of founder Sir Thomas Pope. The college's debating society is known as the Gryphon, and the notes of its master emeritus show it to be one of the oldest debating institutions in the country, significantly older than the more famous Oxford Union Society.[http://www.trinity.ox.ac.uk/ Trinity.ox.ac.uk]. Trinity.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved on 2 January 2012. Griffins are also mascots for VU University Amsterdam,[http://www.vu.nl/en/about-vu-amsterdam/mission-and-profile/the-griffin/index.asp VU university Amsterdam. About the griffin.] Retrieved on 5 November 2013. Reed College,{{cite web |url=https://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/december2011/articles/features/almanac/almanac4.html#griffin |title=The New (Olde) Reed Almanac (continued): Griffin |publisher=Reed College}} Sarah Lawrence College,[http://gogryphons.com/ Sarah Lawrence Gryphons]. Gogryphons.com. Retrieved on 23 October 2013. the University of Guelph, and Canisius College.{{citation needed|date=December 2013}}

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

The official seal of Purdue University was adopted during the university's centennial in 1969. The seal, approved by the Board of Trustees, was designed by Prof. Al Gowan, formerly at Purdue. It replaced an unofficial one that had been in use for 73 years.[http://www.purdue.edu/facts/pages/traditions.html Traditions. Big Ten]. Purdue.edu. Retrieved on 2 January 2012.

The College of William and Mary in Virginia changed its mascot to Griffin in April 2010.[http://deadspin.com/5511531/pantless-man%20bird-to-lead-william-and-mary-into-battle Pantless Man-Bird To Lead William and Mary Into Battle]. Deadspin.com (7 April 2010). Retrieved on 2 January 2012.[http://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2010/mascot-revealed-123.php W&M welcomes newest member of the Tribe]. Wm.edu (8 April 2010). Retrieved on 2 January 2012. The griffin was chosen because it is the combination of the British lion and the American eagle.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{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.

| caption1 = Yellow griffin pictured in the logo of the Estonian Internal Security Service.

| image2 = Utin jääkärirykmentin lippu.svg

| alt2 = Flag of the Utti Jaeger Regiment of the Finnish Army

| caption2 = Flag of the Utti Jaeger Regiment of the Finnish Army

}}

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{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, Yin Yang Yo!, and Family Guy.{{Citation |title=Family Guy – "What's your name?" | date=12 March 2016 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJzBopVRKPo |language=en |access-date=2023-01-02}}

A griffin appeared in the 1974 film The Golden Voyage of Sinbad fighting a centaur.{{cite magazine |title=Monsters of the Movies |journal=Starburst |date=1982 |page=60 |url=https://archive.org/details/Starburst_Annual_1982/page/n59/mode/2up?q=%22Golden+Voyage+of+Sinbad%22+%22griffin%22 |publisher=Marvel UK |quote=Notable highspots are the battle between the Griffin and the one-eyed centaur [...]}}

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

In an episode of the sitcom The Big Bang Theory, Dr. Sheldon Cooper mentions that he attempted to create a griffin but could not obtain the "necessary eagle eggs and lion semen".{{Citation |title=...but my parents were unwilling to secure the necessary eagle eggs and lion semen. |url=https://www.getyarn.io/yarn-clip/31e4aae4-53ee-43da-97b2-30b445481be0 |language=en |access-date=2023-01-02}}

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

During World War II, the Heinkel firm named its heavy bomber design for the Luftwaffe after the legendary animal, as the Heinkel He 177 Greif, the German form of "griffin". General Atomics has used the term "Griffin Eye" for its intelligence surveillance platform based on a Hawker Beechcraft King Air 35ER civilian aircraft.[http://www.ga-asi.com/news_events/index.php?read=1&id=301 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.

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

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, Netherlands, 1892–1912

File:Stuffed griffin.jpg|Rogue taxidermy griffin, Zoological Museum, Copenhagen

File:Griffin of Monti's Planisphere.jpg|A griffin portrayed in a mythical land located south of the world's known continents, from Urbano Monti's map (1587).

File:Aarnikotka.jpg|UPM (company) Finnish forest industry company. Symbol came into use in 1899.

• Chimera, Greek mythological hybrid monster
• Duck billed platypus, an egg-producing mammal with a beak
• Hybrid creatures in mythology
• List of hybrid creatures in mythology
• Nue, Japanese legendary creature
• Pegasus, winged stallion in Greek mythology
• Pixiu or Pi Yao, Chinese mythical creature
• Sharabha, Hindu mythology: lion-bird hybrid
• Snow Lion, Tibetan mythological celestial animal
• Yali, Hindu mythological lion-elephant-horse hybrid

{{notelist}}

;Citations

{{Reflist|30em|refs=

{{citation|author=Claudius Aelianus |author-link=Claudius Aelianus |editor-last1=Jacobs |editor-first=Friedrich |editor-link=|editor-mask=Scanlan, James J. (tr.) |title=Aeliani de natura animalium libri xvii |volume=1 |publisher=Impensis Friderici Frommanni |year=1832 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8vwOAQAAIAAJ&q=Gryphem&pg=RA1-PA53 |pages=53–54}}

{{cite book|author=Aeschylus |author-link=Aeschylus |editor-last=Watson |editor-first=John Selby |editor-link=John Selby Watson |title=Aischulou Promētheus desmōtēs. The Prometheus vinctus, from the text of Dindorf |year=1870 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VX4CAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA115 |at=vv. 802–806, and endnotes, pp. 115–116 }}

{{citation|author=Albertus Magnus |author-link=Albertus Magnus |editor-last1=Scanlan |editor-first=James J. |editor-link=|editor-mask=Scanlan, James J. (tr.) |title=Man and the Beasts (De Animalibus, Books 22-26) |publisher=Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies |year=1987|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qOgmAAAAMAAJ&q=grifes |page=290 |isbn=9780866980326}}

{{cite journal|last1=Asadi |first1=Arezoo |author1-link= |last2=Darvishi |first2=Farangis |author2-link= |title=The Reflection of Mythological Concepts in Achaemenid Jewelry Art |journal=Journal of Iranian Studies |publisher=Faculty of Literature and Humanities Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman |volume=18 |number=36 |date=Winter 2020 |url=https://docplayer.net/187039592-Journal-of-iranian-studies-faculty-of-literature-and-humanities-shahid-bahonar-university-of-kerman-year-18-no-36-winter-2020.html

|pages=21–41 }}

{{cite book|last1=Bedingfeld |first1=Henry |author1-link=Henry Bedingfeld |last2=Gwynn-Jones |first2=Peter |author-link2=Peter Gwynn-Jones |title=Heraldry |location=Wigston |publisher=Magna Books |year=1993 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xiiqxdVU5T0C&q=goblets |pages=80–81 |isbn=1-85422-433-6 |quotation=Goblets in the shape of gryphon's claws or eggs were highly prized in the courts of medieval Europe, and were usually made from antelope horns and ostrich eggs.}}

{{cite book|last=Bement |first=Clarence S. |author-link= |title=Descriptive Catalogue of Greek Coins selected from the cabinet |location=Philadelphia |publisher=American Numismatic Society |year=1921|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_8MGwpK7NZYC&pg=RA1-PA43 |at=p. 43 and [https://books.google.com/books/content?id=_8MGwpK7NZYC&pg=RA1-PT30 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 |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) [https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6283200h/f59.item.r=lion.zoom 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 |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 and [https://books.google.com/books?id=_Vn4DUtFC18C&pg=PT31 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 |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 |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, [https://books.google.com/books?id=vWsMAQAAMAAJ&q=griffin pp. 274–275]

{{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 |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 |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 |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 |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|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 |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 |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 the Elder |others=translated by John Bostock; Henry Thomas Riley |title=The Natural History of Pliny |publisher=H. G. Bohn |year=1855 |isbn=9780598910769 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sDwZAAAAYAAJ&q=Griffins&pg=PA123 |at=VII.2 (p. 123); [https://books.google.com/books?id=sDwZAAAAYAAJ&q=griffons&pg=PA539 X.70 (p.539)]}}

{{cite book|last=Prakash |first=Tara |author-link= |title=Ancient Egyptian Prisoner Statues: Fragments of the Late Old Kingdom |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 the Elder |others=translated by John Bostock; Henry Thomas Riley |title=The Natural History of Pliny |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 and [https://books.google.com/books?id=9TcWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PT8 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 |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 |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. L. |author-link= |title=Unpublished Griffin Protomes in American Collections |journal=Antike Kunst |volume=3 |number=2 |publisher= |date=1960 |pages=58–70 |jstor=41318521}}
• {{cite book |last=Bolton |first=J. D. P. |author-link= |title=Aristeas of Proconnesus |publisher=Clarendon Press |date=1962 }}
• {{cite book |last=Costello |first=Peter |author-link=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 |author-link= |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 |language=fr}}
• {{cite book |last=Edwards |first=Karen L. |author-link= |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 |author-link=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 |pages=319–328 |doi=10.2307/501330 |jstor=501330}}
• {{cite book |last=Jantzen |first=Ulf |author-link=:de:Ulf Jantzen |title=Griechische Greifenkessel |location=Berlin |date=1955 }}, 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 |pages=183–203 |language=fr}}
• {{cite journal |last=Maxwell-Hyslop|first=K. R. |author-link=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 |author-link=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 |author-link=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 |isbn=0691211183}}
• McClanan. A. L. Griffinology: The Griffin’s Place in Myth, History and Art. Reaktion Books. 2024.
• {{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. N. Potter, 1976
• {{cite book|last=Millington |first=Ellen J. |author-link= |title=Heraldry in History, Poetry, and Romance |publisher=Chapman and Hall |year=1858 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jPRsAAAAMAAJ }}
• {{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 |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 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1999 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qonfAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Christian+allegory%22+griffin |isbn=9780195095616 |quotation=Isidore's entries contain traditional folkloric material, but without Christian allegory}}
• {{cite book|last=Papalexandrou |first=Nassos |author-link= |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 |isbn=9781477323632}}
• {{cite journal |last=Phillips |first=E. D. |author-link= |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 |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 |author-link= |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 |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 |language=fa}}

{{refend}}

{{refbegin}}

• Bisi, Anna Maria, Il grifone: Storia di un motivo iconografico nell'antico Oriente mediterraneo. Rome: Centro di studi semitici, Istituto di studi del Vicino Oriente, Sapienza Università di Roma, 1965.
• McClallen, Anne L. Griffinology: The Griffin’s Place in Myth, History and Art. London: Reaktion, 2024.
• Wild, Friedrich. Gryps-Greif-Gryphon (Griffon). Eine sprach-, kultur- und stoffgeschichtliche Studie Wien: Herman Böhlaus, 1963. (Oesterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philologisch-historische Klasse, Sitzungberichte, 241).

{{refend}}

{{Commons category|Griffins}}

• [https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/mythic-creatures/land/griffin-bones Griffin bones] at amnh.org
• {{cite EB9 |wstitle = Griffin |volume= XI | page=195 |short=1 }}

{{refbegin}}

• [http://www.gryphonpages.com/ The Gryphon Pages], a repository of griffin lore and information
• [http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast151.htm The Medieval Bestiary: Griffin]
• [http://www.griffinfantasy.com/four-footed-winged-raptors-gryphons-of-greece-europe-and-the-near-east1.html Four Footed Winged Raptors Gryphons of Greece, Europe and the Near East], source texts in Greek, Hebrew, and Old English, with new English translations.
• {{Skeptoid | id=4442 | number= 442| title= Griffins| date=25 November 2014 | last= Haupt| first=Ryan }}

{{refend}}

{{Heraldic creatures}}

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Category:Egyptian legendary creatures

Category:European legendary creatures

Category:Greek legendary creatures

Category:Heraldic beasts

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Category:Mythological hybrids

Category:Fairy tale stock characters