Online Encyclopedia

GRIFFON GRIFFIN

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 596 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GRIFFON

GRIFFIN  or GRYPHON (from Fr. griffon,
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Lat. gryphus, Gr. ypG '), in the natural
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history of the ancients, the name of an imaginary rapacious creature of the eagle
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species, represented with four legs, wings and a beak,—the fore
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part resembling an eagle and the hinder a lion . In addition, some writers describe the tail as a serpent . This animal, which was supposed to watch over gold mines and hidden treasures, and to be the enemy of the horse, was consecrated to the Sun; and the ancient painters represented the chariot of the Sun as
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drawn by griffins . According to Spanheim, those of
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Jupiter and
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Nemesis were similarly provided . The griffin of Scripture is probably the osprey, and the name is now given to a species of
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vulture . The griffin was said to inhabit
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Asiatic Scythia, where gold and precious stones were abundant; and when strangers approached to gather these the creatures leapt upon them and tore them in pieces, thus chastising human avarice and greed . The one-eyed
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Arimaspi waged constant war with them, according to Herodotus (iii . 16) .
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Sir John de Mandeville, in his Travels, described a griffin as eight times larger than a lion . The griffin is frequently seen as a charge in
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heraldry (see HERALDRY, fig . 163); and in architectural decoration is usually represented as a four-footed beast with wings and the head of a
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leopard or tiger with horns, or with the head and beak of an eagle; in the latter case, but very rarely, with two legs . To what extent it owes its origin to Persian sculpture is not known, the capitals at
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Persepolis have sometimes leopard or lion heads with horns, and four-footed beasts with the beaks of eagles are represented in bas-reliefs .

In the

temple of Apollo Branchidae near Miletus in
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Asia Minor, the winged griffin of the capitals has leopards' heads with horns . In the capitals of the so-called lesser propylaea at
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Eleusis conventional eagles with two feet support the angles of the abacus . The greater number of those in Rome have eagles' beaks, as in the
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frieze of the temple of Antoninus and Faustina, and their tails develop into conventional foliage . A similar
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device was found in the Forum of Trajan . The best decorative employment of the griffin is found in the vertical supports of tables, of which there are two or three examples in
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Pompeii and others in the Vatican and the museums in Rome . In some of these cases the head is that of a lion at one end of the support and an eagle at the' ,other end, and there is only one strongly
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developed paw; the wings circling round at the top form conspicuous features on the sides of these supports, the surfaces below being filled with conventional Greek foliage .

End of Article: GRIFFON GRIFFIN
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GERALD O'GREEVA] GRIFFIN [O'GRIoBTA (1803-1840)
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SIR RICHARD JOHN GRIFFITH (1784-1878)

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