Griffin
A creature with the head, wings and fore-claws of an eagle and the body of a lion: in Greek writers the guardian of gold in the far north, and in heraldry one of the commonest beasts, standing for strength and vigilance.
Meaning
The griffin (also spelled griffon or gryphon) joins the eagle to the lion. The heraldry writer John Vinycomb described it in 1906 as having “the head, neck, wings, and talons of an eagle, conjoined to the hinder parts of a lion”, with ears that stand up, and our drawing follows that heraldic form, walking (passant) with one claw raised. Herodotus heard of griffins as the guardians of gold in the far north, and Pliny doubted them; by Vinycomb’s time the griffin was “one of the principal bearings in heraldry”, on the shields, crests and supporters of many families in Britain and on the Continent.
Origin and history
Herodotus had the story from a poem by Aristeas of Proconnesus: beyond the Issedones lived the one-eyed Arimaspians, and beyond them “the griffins that guard gold”. He passed it on with caution. Gold was said to come from the north of Europe, where the Arimaspians stole it from griffins, “But I do not believe this,” he added, at least about the one-eyed men. Pliny listed griffins “with long ears and a hooked beak” among his fabulous birds.
Vinycomb gathered the earlier evidence for the shape. Schliemann found a winged griffin in gold in one of the royal graves at Mycenae, and the city of Abdera in Thrace, founded by settlers from Teos, put a griffin on its coins; the griffin was sacred to Apollo, especially at Teos.
The griffin in heraldry
Vinycomb dates the griffin in English armory to 1167, when it appears on a seal of Richard de Redvers, Earl of Exeter, on a charter at Newport on the Isle of Wight. It is usually shown in one of two positions, walking (passant) or rearing (segreant, which for a griffin “means the same as rampant applied to a lion”), and Vinycomb says that in heraldry it stands for strength and vigilance.
Griffins’ claws
Churches kept griffin relics. Vinycomb notes that three griffin’s talons at Bayeux were fastened to the altar on high feast days, and that Brunswick Cathedral still preserved, as “a griffin’s claw” brought from the Holy Land by Henry the Lion, what is in fact the horn of an antelope. In Dante’s Purgatorio a griffin, part eagle and part lion, draws the chariot in the triumph of the Church.
Read next
- Next in Mythical creatures of Greece and EuropePhoenixThe bird of classical legend that lives for centuries, one at a time, and is reborn from its own death; in Christian writing a figure of the resurrection, and in heraldry a bird rising from flames.
- In HeraldryGriffin in heraldryIn heraldry, a monster with an eagle’s head, wings and forelegs on a lion’s body, hind legs and tail, and with ears. Rearing on its hind legs it is called segreant. Fox-Davies thought it the most popular heraldic beast after the lion.
See also
Minotaur, Centaur, Chimera, Hydra, Harpy, Siren.
Sources
- Herodotus, Histories 3.116 (tr. A. D. Godley), Herodotus, The Histories, translated by A. D. Godley (1920), 3.116, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, 3.116
- Herodotus, Histories 4.13 (tr. A. D. Godley), Herodotus, The Histories, translated by A. D. Godley (1920), 4.13, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, 4.13
- Pliny the Elder, Natural History 10.70 (tr. Bostock and Riley), Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, translated by John Bostock and H. T. Riley (1855), book X, chapter 70, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, Book X, chapter 70, fabulous birds
- Fictitious and Symbolic Creatures in Art (John Vinycomb, 1906), John Vinycomb, Fictitious & Symbolic Creatures in Art, with Special Reference to Their Use in British Heraldry (London: Chapman and Hall, 1906), Project Gutenberg, Griffin or Gryphon, pp. 147–161
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from curves and waves.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 10, 2026. How we research
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