Record #74
Griffon
A gigantic eagle-lion hybrid associated with immense strength and guardianship.
Original Text
Winged monsters, says Herodotus of the Griffons in his accounts of their continual warfare with the one-eyed Arimaspians; almost as sketchy, Pliny speaks of their ears and their hooked beaks, yet judges them fabulous (X, 7o). Perhaps the most detailed description of the Griffon comes from the problematic Sir John Mandeville in Chapter 8; of his famous Travels:
From this land men shal go unto the land of Bactry, where are many wicked men & fell,in that land are trees that beare wol, as it were shepe, of which they make cloth. In this land are ypotains [hippopotamuses] that dwel sometime on land, sometime on water, and are halfe a man and halfe a horse, and they eate not but men, when they may get them. In this land are many gryffons, more than in other places, and some say they haue the body before as an Egle, and behinde as a Lyon, and it is trouth, for they be made so; but the Griffen hath a body greater than viii Lyons and stall worthier than a hundred Egles. For certainly hewyl beare to his nest flying, a horse and a man upon his back, or two Oxen yoked togither as they go at plowgh, for he hath large nayles on hys fete, as great as it were homes of Oxen, and of those they make cups there to drynke of, and of his rybes they make bowes to shoote with.
In Madagascar, another famous traveller, Marco Polo, heard the rukh spoken of and at first understood this as a reference to the uccellogrifone, the Griffon bird (Travels, III 36).
In the Middle Ages, the symbolism of the Griffon is contradictory. An Italian bestiary says that it stands for the Devil; usually it is an emblem of Christ, and this is how Isidore of Seville explains it in his Etymologies: ‘Christ is a lion because he reigns and has great strength; and an eagle because, after the Resurrection, he ascended to heaven.’
In Canto XXIX of the Purgatorio, Dante has a vision of a triumphal chariot (the Church), drawn by a Griffon; its eagle portion is golden, its lion portion white mixed with red in order to signify - according to the commentaries - Christ’s human nature. (White slightly reddened gives the colour of human flesh.) The commentators are recalling the descrip- tion of the beloved in the Song of Solomon (V: IO-II): ‘My beloved is white and ruddy . . . His head is as the most fine gold . . . ’
Others feel that Dante wished to symbolize the Pope, who is both priest and king. Didron, in his Manueld’iconographie chrétienne (I84;), writes: ‘The pope, as pontiff or eagle, is borne aloft to the throne of God to receive his commands, and as lion or king walks on earth with strength and might.’
From this land men shal go unto the land of Bactry, where are many wicked men & fell,in that land are trees that beare wol, as it were shepe, of which they make cloth. In this land are ypotains [hippopotamuses] that dwel sometime on land, sometime on water, and are halfe a man and halfe a horse, and they eate not but men, when they may get them. In this land are many gryffons, more than in other places, and some say they haue the body before as an Egle, and behinde as a Lyon, and it is trouth, for they be made so; but the Griffen hath a body greater than viii Lyons and stall worthier than a hundred Egles. For certainly hewyl beare to his nest flying, a horse and a man upon his back, or two Oxen yoked togither as they go at plowgh, for he hath large nayles on hys fete, as great as it were homes of Oxen, and of those they make cups there to drynke of, and of his rybes they make bowes to shoote with.
In Madagascar, another famous traveller, Marco Polo, heard the rukh spoken of and at first understood this as a reference to the uccellogrifone, the Griffon bird (Travels, III 36).
In the Middle Ages, the symbolism of the Griffon is contradictory. An Italian bestiary says that it stands for the Devil; usually it is an emblem of Christ, and this is how Isidore of Seville explains it in his Etymologies: ‘Christ is a lion because he reigns and has great strength; and an eagle because, after the Resurrection, he ascended to heaven.’
In Canto XXIX of the Purgatorio, Dante has a vision of a triumphal chariot (the Church), drawn by a Griffon; its eagle portion is golden, its lion portion white mixed with red in order to signify - according to the commentaries - Christ’s human nature. (White slightly reddened gives the colour of human flesh.) The commentators are recalling the descrip- tion of the beloved in the Song of Solomon (V: IO-II): ‘My beloved is white and ruddy . . . His head is as the most fine gold . . . ’
Others feel that Dante wished to symbolize the Pope, who is both priest and king. Didron, in his Manueld’iconographie chrétienne (I84;), writes: ‘The pope, as pontiff or eagle, is borne aloft to the throne of God to receive his commands, and as lion or king walks on earth with strength and might.’