Griffins

Guardians with Beaks and Claws

A griffin was a legendary creature with the body and back legs of a lion combined with the head, wings and front claws of an eagle. The design joined two animals ancient people saw as extremely powerful: a lion ruling the ground and an eagle ruling the sky. Griffins existed in art long before the Roman Empire and appeared across Egypt, western Asia, Greece and other cultures. Romans did not invent them, but they loved using them on jewellery, mosaics, wall paintings, furniture and stone coffins.

Greek stories imagined griffins living in distant lands where they sometimes guarded gold. They were also connected with several gods. Apollo could be shown beside or even riding a griffin, while other images linked them with Nemesis, the Sun or Bacchus. Roman artists often used pairs of griffins facing an altar, vase or sacred object. This made them excellent decorative guardians. On tombs they could protect the dead, while on military objects they suggested strength and watchfulness. A creature with a lion’s muscles, an eagle’s eyesight and the ability to fly would certainly make an impressive guard.

A proper griffin is not simply a winged lion. It should have an eagle-like beak and bird-of-prey claws at the front, although ancient artists changed other details. Some griffins have pointed ears, crests or curling wings. There is a modern theory that ancient griffin stories may have been inspired by dinosaur fossils found in Central Asia, but historians debate this and griffin images are older and more widespread than the idea easily explains. It is safer to see the griffin as an imaginative combination of familiar animals. Griffins survived long after Rome and appeared in medieval art, coats of arms and modern fantasy. I think their staying power is easy to understand. If you want to invent a creature that looks proud, dangerous and almost impossible to defeat, combining a lion and an eagle is already a very strong start. Adding wings just seems wonderfully excessive.

⬅   Back