UPDATE: Apparently the Top Search term leading people to my blog lately is “griffin.” In honor of that, here is my June 25, 2007 post on the history of the griffin!
I saw this thing on the History Channel the other day about the origins of mythic creatures.
Scythians spread the legend of the Griffin, and Griffin stories quickly spread to Greece and throughout the ancient world, even to the Jews. The Torah says don’t eat griffins (always good advice). The “New Testament” uses a griffin as a metaphor for Jesus or something.
Scythians would use the Griffin to scare off enemies, letting it be known that their treasure is guarded by a Griffin and if you invade, the Griffin will eat you, etc.
Scholars are now finding griffin-looking dinosaur skulls (pictured here) laying around in the heart of what was Scythian territory. Read more about this at the American Museum of Natural History: Griffin Bones. The Scythians would have seen these skulls and assumed giant beasts of this nature were nearby, or maybe just thought it was great propaganda material to scare enemies.
The griffin was based on a real creature!
Isn’t that awesome?
I love history!
And new discoveries are happening every day.
Nick
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