Gryphons! Creatures From The Imaginal World?

I wanted to do a bit about these interesting -mythical? creatures because I think they are so cool. I prefer the "gryphon" spelling instead of the way it is usually spelled-"griffin"-I don't know why. I hope to have the main article about this subject here by the 10th or 11th. Please forgive me for not having it all ready to go. I was getting tired of seeing the post below at the top of the page. The guys and girl in it are very good looking, so it's nothing to do with that. I was just ready for a change.

From Bulfinch's Mythology pages 128-129 and the index: "The Griffin or Gryphon is a monster with the body of a lion, the head and wings of an eagle, and back covered with feathers. Like birds it builds its nest, and instead of an egg lays an agate therein. It has long claws and talons of such a size that the people of the country make them into drinking cups. India was assigned as the native country of the Griffins. They found gold in the mountains and built their nests of it, for which reason their nests were very tempting to the hunters, and they were forced to keep vigilant guard over them. Their instinct led them to know where buried treasures lay, and they did their best to keep plunderers at a distance. The Arimaspians, among whom the Griffins flourished, were a one-eyed people of Scythia. Milton borrows a simile from the Griffins, "Paradise Lost," Book II:

"As with a Gryphon through the wilderness,

With winged course, o'er hill and moory dale,

Pursues the Arimaspian who by stealth

Hath from his wakeful custody purloined

His guarded gold," etc.

Here is the description of the gryphon from Bulfinch's index, page 909: "A fabulous animal, with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle, dwelling in the Rhipaean mountains, between the Hyperboreans and the one-eyed Arimaspians, and guarding the gold of the North."

From Wikipedia: "The griffin (griffon or gryphon) is a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. As the lion was traditionally considered the king of the beasts and the eagle was the king of the birds, the griffin was thought to be an especially powerful and majestic creature. Griffins are normally known for guarding treasure. In antiquity it was a symbol of divine power and a guardian of the divine.

Most contemporary illustrations give the griffin legs like an eagle's legs with talons, although in some older illustrations it has a lion's forelimbs; it generally has 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 sometimes feathered.

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 beast may be called an alce or a keythong. In heraldry, a griffin always has forelegs like an eagle's; the beast with forelimbs like a lion's forelegs was distinguished by perhaps only one English herald of later heraldry as the opinicus. The modern generalist calls it the lion-griffin, as for example, Robin Lane Fox, in Alexander the Great, 1973: 31 and notes, p. 506, who remarks a lion-griffin attacking a stag in a pebble mosaic at Pella, perhaps as an emblem of the kingdom of Macedon or a personal one of Alexander's successor Antipater ca. 397BC-319BC). Antipater was a Macedonian general who supported Alexander the Great. In 320 BC, he became regent of all of Alexander's empire."

The first image is one I stole from somewhere;-). The second image is of a gryphon outside of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice. The third image is a very early appearance of gryphons, dating from before 2000 BCE. Two of them are shown with the Sumerian deity, Ningishzida-a Mesopotamian deity of the underworld. Ninghiszida was also a patron of medicine-Ningishzida is the earliest known symbol of snakes twining around an axial rod. It predates the Caduceus of Hermes, the Rod of Asclepius and the staff of Moses by more than a millenium. Here are some links (done the lazy way-sorry!): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griffin , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ningishzida , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipater

Here is a link to Loren Coleman's Twilight Language blog that Anadae Effro was kind enough to point out about the sad death at the age of 34 of paranormal/Fortean/UFO investigator Mac Tonnies http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2009/10/tonnies.html Loren Coleman's blog has many other fascinating articles in it also for people interested in all sorts of different subjects.