40 Fun Facts About Griffins

In Greek and Roman lore, griffins were famous for fiercely guarding deposits of which metal in Central Asia?

Gold in the far mountains was said to be watched by griffins, which chased down any thief who came near. The tale turned the griffin into a lasting emblem of guarded treasure.

Which winged creature of legend, born of a mare, do knights ride in the poem Orlando Furioso?

The Hippogriff has a griffin for a father, and it first took flight in the Italian poet Ariosto's early 1500s epic. Harry Potter readers know one by the name Buckbeak.

Often mistaken for griffins, the statues that guard the City of London's boundaries are actually which creatures?

Dragons hold up the shield in the City of London's coat of arms, so cast-iron ones stand at its edges. Their bat-like wings give them away, because a griffin's wings are feathered.

Medieval treasuries proudly displayed 'griffin eggs' that were often really the eggs of which bird?

Ostrich eggs were rare and exotic enough in medieval Europe to pass as relics of a mythical beast. In a few cases the prized 'egg' turned out to be a fossilised dinosaur egg.

In the Harry Potter series, which Hogwarts wizard has a knocker shaped like a griffin on his door?

Albus Dumbledore's knocker is not the saga's only nod to the creature. The surname of the Hogwarts founder Godric Gryffindor plays on the French phrase griffon d'or.

In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the Queen orders the Gryphon to take Alice to meet which sorrowful character?

The Mock Turtle tells Alice about his school days in the sea between sobs, while the Gryphon insists that all the sorrow has no basis in fact.

Medieval legend says which ancient ruler soared skyward on two harnessed griffins, luring them upward with meat?

Alexander the Great, the story goes, sat between the two beasts and held skewers of meat above their heads so they kept climbing. He was also said to have explored the seabed in a diving bell.

Which European car brand had to give up its famous griffin badge after new owners took over in 2012?

Saab had shared its griffin with the truck maker Scania, which feared the emblem could end up in the wrong hands and barred the car brand's new owners from using it.

In medieval Christian thought, the griffin, a creature of both earth and sky, became a symbol of which figure?

Jesus was held to be both human and divine, so a beast that joined a bird of the air to an animal of the ground made a natural emblem. Griffins can be found carved on a number of churches.

The Greek playwright Aeschylus described griffins as the silent, sharp-beaked hounds of which Greek god?

Zeus is named as their master in the tragedy Prometheus Bound, and the dog comparison has led scholars to suspect that Aeschylus pictured griffins without wings.

The seventh-century scholar Isidore of Seville wrote that griffins were the fierce enemies of which animals?

Horses were the griffin's sworn foes in medieval lore, a grudge that may go back to older tales of mounted raiders robbing the griffins' hoards.

Which Greek god was believed to leave Delphi each winter and ride a griffin north to the land of Hyperborea?

Apollo appears astride a griffin on Greek red-figure pottery, and a later Latin poet has him hitch a team of griffins to his chariot instead.

Which British car maker traces its griffin logo to the arms of a thirteenth-century mercenary soldier?

Vauxhall owes its name to the same man: Falkes de Breauté, who served King John and whose London home, Falkes' Hall, gave the district its name.

Which huge South American bird has the scientific name Vultur gryphus, Latin for griffin-vulture?

The Andean condor earns the lofty name with a wingspan of up to 3.3 metres, which makes it one of the largest flying birds in the world.

One of the oldest griffin-like figures, carved before 3000 BC, appears on a slate cosmetic palette from which land?

Egypt's Two Dog Palette, found at Hierakonpolis, carries a beaked creature on four legs. Later Egyptians gave the griffin descriptive nicknames such as Tearer and the fiery one.

Which Italian poet has a griffin pull a triumphal chariot through a garden at the summit of Mount Purgatory?

Dante meets the griffin's chariot at the end of his long climb, and it carries Beatrice, the beloved woman who then leads him onward into Heaven.

Unlike a real eagle, the head of a griffin is traditionally drawn with which prominent feature?

Ears stand upright on almost every griffin, often elongated and sometimes feathered. The Roman writer Pliny the Elder was the first to say plainly that griffins had them.

Restored frescoes of griffins flank a stone throne in which Bronze Age palace on the island of Crete?

Knossos was dug by Sir Arthur Evans, who took the griffins beside the alabaster seat as proof that the ruler who sat there stood somehow beyond the mortal realm.

Which Swedish fighter jet, in service since the 1990s, has a name that means griffin?

Gripen was the winning entry in a public naming competition, and the griffin is also the heraldic beast on the logo of the jet's maker.

One theory says griffin legends were shaped by Central Asian fossils of which beaked, frilled dinosaur?

Protoceratops was put forward by the folklorist Adrienne Mayor, who argued that nomads saw its beaked, four-legged skeletons. Paleontologist Mark Witton disputes the idea, as griffin art is far older.

Supposed griffin claws were prized in medieval Europe and were frequently fashioned into which objects?

Drinking cups made from a 'griffin claw' were treasured across medieval Europe. One linked to Charlemagne survives in Paris, and it was really carved from the horn of an ox.

In European folklore, including an Italian folktale, a griffin's feather was believed to cure which affliction?

Blindness is cured by the feather in an Italian tale in which the bones of its murdered finder sing out what happened. Surviving 'griffin feathers' are forgeries made of painted palm fibre.

The two-foot 'griffin claws' recorded at Saint Cuthbert's shrine in 1383 turned out to be the horns of which animal?

Alpine ibex horns were identified in the claws that survive from the saint's treasures. The same 1383 inventory of his shrine also counted two griffin eggs among the relics.

Which epic poem by John Milton compares Satan's journey to a griffin chasing a thief across the wilderness?

Paradise Lost pictures the creature racing over hill and marshy dale after the man who stole from its hoard, a nod to tales told since ancient Greece.

A bronze griffin, the largest medieval Islamic metal sculpture known, long stood atop which Italian city's cathedral?

Pisa set the statue on a column above its cathedral, where it stayed until 1828. Carbon dating shows it was cast between 1085 and 1110, most likely in Islamic Spain.

Which Italian maritime republic showed griffins rearing beside the Cross of St George on its coat of arms?

Genoa took up the griffins as it rose to become a major seafaring power in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, placing one on each side of its shield.

A red griffin on a white shield is the historic coat of arms of which duchy on the Baltic Sea coast?

Pomerania was ruled for centuries by a dynasty known as the House of Griffin, and the red beast survives in the arms of a Polish province and a German state.

Which Virginia college chose a griffin mascot in 2010 as a blend of the British lion and the American eagle?

William & Mary picked the griffin over finalists that included a pug and a phoenix, and the choice drew a joke from the comedian Jon Stewart, a graduate of the college.

Which Michigan city has been home since 1996 to the Griffins, a professional ice hockey team?

Grand Rapids picked the name through a public contest in 1995, after the owners said they wanted something with a face and a personality that could become a mascot.

Griffon, a dive coaster that opened in 2007 with a 205-foot climb, thrills riders at which American theme park?

Busch Gardens Williamsburg opened the ride as the tallest and fastest dive coaster in the world, and as the first of its kind to run floorless trains.

In the second of Ray Harryhausen's three Sinbad films, a griffin does battle with which other creature of myth?

A centaur serves the film's sorcerer as the Guardian of Evil and kills the griffin, the Guardian of Good, before Sinbad slays it in turn. Harryhausen animated both by hand, frame by frame.

In Rebecca Yarros's Empyrean novels, griffins are the chosen mounts of the fliers of which kingdom?

Poromiel's fliers first appear in Fourth Wing, when the heroine Violet learns that her own leaders have been hiding the neighbouring kingdom's war against the venin.

Which London football club played until 2020 at Griffin Park, a ground named after a brewery's griffin logo?

Brentford's old home was built on an orchard once owned by Fuller's Brewery, and it was known as the only English league ground with a pub on each corner.

Which legendary one-eyed people of the far north were said to steal the treasure that griffins guarded?

Arimaspians rode off with the loot while the griffins gave chase, a story that goes back to a poem by Aristeas, a Greek traveller of the seventh century BC.

A lion rearing on its hind legs in heraldry is rampant, but which term describes a griffin in that pose?

Segreant is the one place where griffins part from the lion's heraldic vocabulary. British heralds also insist that a griffin is never shown with its wings closed.

In British heraldry, what covers the body of the wingless 'male griffin' known as a keythong?

Spikes bristle from the keythong's body, and a short tusk juts from its forehead. The odd beast may have begun as a version of the heraldic panther.

The opinicus, a rare heraldic cousin of the griffin, has a lion's body and legs but the tail of which animal?

The tail of a camel sets the opinicus apart, and the beast is rare enough that its best-known home is the arms of the Worshipful Company of Barbers.

The 'Griffin Warrior', a Bronze Age man buried with an ivory griffin plaque, was found in 2015 near which Greek city?

Pylos yielded the shaft tomb to a University of Cincinnati team, and combs found beside the thirty-something warrior suggest that he wore his hair long.

Which central Italian hill city uses the griffin as its symbol, a badge also worn by its football club?

Perugia shows the griffin on plaques and statues all over town, including a 13th-century bronze that is now kept inside the Palazzo dei Priori.

Which British high-street bank was famous for a griffin logo before it was rebranded as HSBC in the 1990s?

Midland's golden griffin was a familiar sight on British high streets for decades, until a 1997 rebrand swapped it for the hexagon of the bank's parent company.