"The griffin represents wisdom joined to fortitude, but wisdom is obliged to lead, and fortitude follow."
-Chassaneus by Alexander Nisbet
The griffin is a powerful creature which most often resembles a cross between a lion and an eagle or other large bird of prey. Most often the griffin would have the body of a lion and have wings, front legs and the head of an eagle. The lionlike tail often has some feathering along the tail. The ears of the griffin are often tufted and are similar to horse's ears. Most older illustrations of the Griffin give it lion's front legs. Occasionally, there have been pictures of the griffin with a serpent for a tail, making the griffin similar to the chimera. If pictured wingless, it is called a male griffin, a keythong or an alce.
Giffon or griffin-like creatures have appeared throughout early societies. Sometimes they are guardians or sometimes they are hunters. The homa, a Persian bird, was very similar to the Griffin and was used throughout their art and architecture. In addition, the homa was considered the guardian of light. The Scythians said that the griffins guarded the gold in the Scythian Steppes. They said that the griffins killed people who tried to take the gold. As proof, the Scythians presented petrified pieces of bone. There are several legends of gold hoarding griffins throughout the region.
Griffins appear frequently throughout art and craftsmanship. In addition to being featured in decorations or as guardians on a large scale, it was also seen in smaller arts. It was common in Greece to find griffin headed vases or cauldrons. It was also present in stories, poems and tales throughout the area. Many of these stories said that griffins were only females. They built nests and instead of laying eggs, they would lay sapphires. Sometimes they were said to lay three eggs which were greatly prized by nobility in addition to griffin claws (antelope horns). The eggs were actually ostrich eggs. The griffin would hunger for horses, but when it did reproduce with horses, they were called hippogriffs. Stephen Frair said that they pulled Apollo and Nemesis's chariots.
Griffins impacted Christian theology in many ways as well. Griffins were said to be loyal and loving mates. They were completely monogamous and were said to never mate again if their mate died. This made them a symbol of marriage or remarriage. Additionally, because it was both mammal and avian, a cross of two different species, it was used as a symbol of Christ's mixed blood, human and divine. For these reasons, you will often find them on churches.
There are variations on the griffin theme. The most unique part of griffin mythology is its sexual dimorphism best displayed when comparing the Male giffin, alce or keythong with the traditional more feminine griffin. The alce is rare and it has no wings. However, the keythong is even more rare. It is a male griffin that has spikes instead of wings and two straight long horns. The opinicus is a griffin with a longer feathered neck and with the front legs of a lion, not a bird. Some griffins have dragonlike wings or otherwise resemble dragons.
Griffin Traits: guardianship, divinity, marriage, monogamy, wisdom, fortitude
Goddesses/Gods: Sefer and Sefert, Apollo and Nemesis,
Elements: fire, air, gold
Heraldry: Wisdom Joined to Fortitude. One of the Queen's ten beasts. In heraldry a griffin always has eagle forelimbs. If it has leonine forelimbs it is instead called a opinicus. Having the griffin on the bearers heraldry meant that the person was strong and possessed the qualities of both the lion and the eagle. It was also said to instill fear in the enemy's horses. You can also have a griffin's head on your heraldry, differentiated from the eagle by its horselike leonine ears.
Complimentary Creatures (These are creatures which are complimentary, adversaries or opposite the griffin or its magic. They can create a yin-yang effect): Unicorn, horse
Associated Mythical Creatures: Chimera (when the Griffin has a snake for a tail, it creates a similarity), alce, keythong, Hippogriff, Simurgh, Dragon, axex, homa, hippogriff, cockatrice, winged lion
Magic: divine guardian, divinity,divine power, solar magic,
Locations: places where gold is abundant, steppes, mountains, high places
Fauna: birds, lions
Water info: A winged sea lion (lion front with fish tail) is also called a Morse. They are often represented in heraldry. Lions with wings are also called griffons (modern usage of the term).
The winged sea lion is also shown as heraldic supporter and device (Example: St. George’s Supporter). In medieval heraldry the fins on sea animals was sometimes referred to as winged or finned (pinniped translates to “wing-foot” or “fin foot”).
Unicorn and Griffon: Often shown in opposition to each other. Griffon is said to prefer the taste of horse flesh. The rare griffon-horse breeding is one way to get a hippogriff though. Unicornate griffons appear in early art (Mesopotamian and earlier) as sculptures, reliefs and 2d images. Some unicornate griffons are hippogriffs too. They are often shown with unicorn horn, eared griffon head, wings, lion body and lion tail. They were used as guardian style sculptures.
Art by Stephanie Small
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