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SOME VARIETIES OF GRIFFIN : a mythical beast that migrates through space and time

Griffins are among the most ancient, wide-spread and lasting mythical beasts with a

legacy that goes back several millennia to the Middle East.

NB – I have listed the griffins illustrated at the end of this article, with their Département number for those in France.

Adrienne Mayor, in “The First Fossil Hunters”, 2000, Princeton University Press, has written a fascinating and convincing thesis to explain the origins of some of the mythical monsters of classical times. Her suggestion for the origin of the Griffin is that it was based on the exquisitely preserved fossil remains of a lion-sized quadruped dinosaur with a beak, the Protoceratops, found in large numbers in the Gobi desert. Mayor suggests that these fossils may have been found by Scythian nomads seeking gold in antiquity, and imaginative reconstructions found their way first into Scythian, Thracian and thence into Greek and Roman art. She published a sketch (by Ed Heck and Daniel Loxton) of the fossilized skeleton compared with a typical ancient Griffin, which makes her theory seems very likely, as does the idea that the myth of the Griffins being guardians of gold arose from the circumstances in which the gold miners found themselves.

Protoceratops dinosaur skeleton, drawn by Ed Heck

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Griffin and baby. Hammered bronze relief, ca. 630 BC, found at Olympia, Greece. Olympia Archaeological Museum. Drawing by Adrienne Mayor

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restoration of the Protoceratops dinosaur Protceratops dinosaur skeleton as a Griffin, drawn by Ed Heck, colored by Daniel Loxton (My thanks to Adrienne Mayor for providing these illustrations). Introducing the Senmurv – the eastern griffin This mythical animal is sculpted on a pluteo on the early VIIIc tomb of the Abbess Theodote in Pavia :

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Here is the entire sarcophagus with peacocks by a Christian chalice on one pluteo and monsters on the other:

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Note the little monster heads emerging from the floral decoration between the monsters. Would you call them Griffins? I would have done so until I went to an exhibition of Sassanide or Persian art in Paris recently. There I learnt that this animal, like a Griffin but only as far as the waist – and then ending in a peacock’s tail - is actually a Senmurv. This fine example was sculpted by Maestro Nicodemus, in the church of Santa Maria in Valle Porclaneta at Rosciolo, in the Abruzzi, in the 11thc :

The next sculpture:

comes from from Arles sur Tech, Rousillon, on the wall of a house below a statue of a saint in a niche.

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Is it fanciful to see a marine version of the Senmurv in this underwater scene painted on the wall of the Chapel of St Theudère in the abbey church of St-Chef, Dauphiné? The frescos are 12th century, though much restored. I have turned this slide through 90°.

This monster from Geay in the Saintonge closely resembles the senmurv on the tomb of the Abbess Theodote, except for the hindquarters which are more like a lion’s and the muzzle, which is more elongated – nearly a crocodile’s. There is a second, similar capital on the apse at Geay – a church where sobriety is the norm, and there is very little sculpture outside :

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Inside, however, the church is a veritable temple dedicated to griffins of several kinds. Click here to see them in an album of their own : http://picasaweb.google.com/JuliannaLees/GeayInSaintonge

Here are a pair of griffin capitals of both Eastern and Western types, from inside Geay. Note that those on the left have crocodile heads like the ones outside, while the others have eagle heads and a foliate tail. All have decorated wings with a pattern of peacock-like eyes. Not far from Geay, at Macqueville in Saintonge there is a green senmurv on voussures over the South door :

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At Sigogne, Saintonge, griffins of both aquiline and leonine appearance are gripped by a strange devil mask of bovine aspect.

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Not far away, in Siecq, a round-headed senmurv is depicted on corbels :

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More griffin-type monsters are to be found at Siecq, and at most of the churches in that part of Saintonge. Click here to see more of them : http://picasaweb.google.com/JuliannaLees However, the Senmurv usually has a head like a dog’s, whereas a Classical Griffin usually has a head like an eagle’s. This one is on a silver gilt dish from Iran, VIIc AD.

The Senmurv – associated with royalty - was a very popular image at a time in Iran which approximates to the Merovingian period in Europe.

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This Senmurv appears in a MS, Beatus’ Commentary on the Apocalypse, by monks called Senior, Emeterios and Ende, for Abbot Domingo, in 975. The MS can be seen in the Cathedral Museum, Gerona. It was used on every type of appropriate artefact from sculpture to coins including textiles, which were often used to wrap the relics of saints brought back from the Holy Lands.

This piece of silk, made in Byzantium, once wrapped the relics of St Helen. Known as the “Suaire de Ste Hélène”, it is now in the Louvre. The oriental senmurvs seen here, with their lion heads and peacock tails are like those on the Persian plate and on

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Theodote‘s sarcophagus. Richly-ornamented silk like this was used to wrap relics, and thus influenced Merovingian art. Another example of oriental patterned silk that has been preserved as a relic itself can be found at Cadouin, where verses from the Koran have been wrongly interpreted as decoration on a holy shroud. It may have been via an artifact similar to the “Suaire de Ste Hélène” that a sculptor in Cumbria depicted these dog-headed senmurvs with only forelegs, and flamboyant tails, on the font in the church at Bridekirk:

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The image of a Senmurv very similar to the one on the Sassanide dish of the VIIc can be bought as a silver pendant sold in the Museum shop of the Budapest National Museum, as a “Pava-Sarkany” – Hungarian for “Peacock Dragon”. I was unable to find any artifact in the museum upon which it might have been based. However, a Senmurv-type of creature appears among other winged creatures – mostly birds – on this silver dish made in Serbia in the XVIc :

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Here, the Senmurv has become a fabulous bird – or is it a Basilisk? The other birds represent a peacock and peahen, a crane, an owl and a bird wearing a crown. Click here to read more about this animal in Persia, Kurdistan, Armenia, etc : http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Mythology/simorgh_senmurv.htm

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The Western griffin The western griffin usually has an eagle’s beak, like this one on a corbel from the IVc Baptistry at Poitiers:

The griffin, a composite of eagle & lion, a union of the noblest animal with the king of birds, remained popular in Romanesque art and beyond. There is a series of monsters on voussures at Civray which is unique in that it shows pairs of “affronted” monsters of several different and distinct varieties, posed in attitudes of heraldic symmetry:

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There is a pair with lion heads and four legs, a pair with two legs and eagle heads, and also a pair of Senmurvs, Persian griffins with forepaws but their hind parts ending as snaky peacock tails. It may be argued that the central pair are simply eagles, despite the large plumes on their heads (broken on the left). However, the lions are definitely winged, which leads one to suppose that the sculptor deliberately intended to portray varieties of griffin-type monsters on the voussures. In addition to these examples, there is a gentle pair of griffins on a capital at Civray :

The bodies are almost hippogriffs (see below) but the bird heads are more goose-like than the usual eagle heads. Unusually, the beasts are not displayed symmetrically. The one on the right is preening herself, while her partner seems to be kissing her wing tip. Joseph Niggs, author of “The Book of Gryphons” and “The Book of Fabulous Beasts” (among others) writes : “Goose-like heads maybe, but also very representative of the delicate griffins of Crete (at the reconstructed Palace of Minos) and Mycenae (from Schliemann's grave circles, etc.)” http://josephnigg.com/

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Senmurvs are seen on a frieze above the abacus decorating the capital from the cloister at Moissac of the “Miraculous Draught of Fish”:

And at Brive, where they look peaceful and guard a pine cone: symbol of eternal life from antiquity:

In fact, I think that the principal role of the griffin is as a guardian, whether of a sacred place, a hoard of treasure, a tomb, or a person of rank. In this respect they may be compared to the winged bulls of Babylon. The Classical griffin of antiquity The classical Griffin looks more like these winged lions with eagle beaks. Romanesque sculptors favoured the depiction of twin motifs arranged symmetrically on the angles of their capitals.

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These handsome twin griffins from Fleuriel in the Auvergne are the perfect mixture of lion and eagle, and are, perhaps, the most typical of the Western-style eagle with Graeco-Roman origins like the pair that guard this chalice :

They are Germano-Roman, 2nd c AD, from the museum at Trier. A similar pair of Griffins & Chalice can be seen on this bas relief of similar date found at Aquincum, near Budapest :

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A Griffin & Wheel were attributes of Fortuna Nemesis, also in the museum at Aquincum :

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Two pairs of griffins by a stylised chalice decorate these ivory panels of saints made around 800 AD and now in the Schnutgen Museum in Cologne.

Here are some similar Classical griffins from the cloister at Moissac. These are on the frieze above the abacus on the capital depicting the story of Saint Martin :

Hellenic influence

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Thracian silver plate from Rogozen, 5thc BC This silver plate found in a part of Thrace (now Bulgaria) shows four pairs of griffins with their bodies facing each other but heads turned back to face a griffin from another pair. Unlike the Western griffin of later date, they do not have eagle heads. Their pointed ears are more feline than leonine; their thin tails meet and fan out into palmettes which may have influenced the development of the peacock-tailed Senmurv of Iran a thousand years later. A gem dating from the first century AD, inscribed with a winged lion griffin was found in a tomb in Tillia-Tepe, Afghanistan, and is evidence of the spread of Hellenic influences via the progress of Alexander the Great towards India:

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This griffin, though leonine, still has an eagle’s head, which appears to be crowned with plumes – or are they clouds? Also from Kaboul is this 1st century Master of Beasts jewel:

These beasts are horned, with long, curly goat or antelope horns. Their heads are in keeping with the horns and they have hind legs, but also wings. Are they griffins or dragons? Another example of griffins influenced by Hellenic art and Alexander the Great can be seen among the mosaics in the cathedral at Otranto :

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This is said to have been made by a monk called Pantaleone in the 12th century. Here Alexander is ascending to heaven on a little throne borne by a pair of griffins. This apotheosis can also be seen on a sculpture at San Marco, Venice :

Here, Alexander is riding in a chariot, but what is he holding in his two hands? To find out, please click here: http://www.green-man-of-cercles.org/articles/alexander.pdf

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These Bambi-like Frankish jewels dating from the VII century and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, are described as Griffins by the curators. When is a winged monster not a Griffin? It is sometimes hard to tell a Senmurv-Griffin from a dragon, or other more obscure Medieval monsters with their extravagant names : Basilisk, Manticore, Scitalis, Wyvern, etc. In Malemort, this lovely monster has a snaky tail that ends in a mean snake head though it is not easy to see it in this photograph. He has a dog head and only forelegs, so is more senmurv than griffin.

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If his tail were peacock not snake he would be a perfect Senmurv with dog head, wings & only two legs. I believe the Senmurv started out as an Iranian adaptation of a Hellenic Griffin, and that sculptures like this one are Romanesque derivations of the Senmurv. A similar senmurv-griffin is seen on the voussures of the church of St Brice at St Mandé sur Bridoire, not far from the more famous St Pierre d’Aulnay, but the same church has a capital of the friendliest-looking senmurvs encircling a human head :

While on a capital at Civray, a pair of senmurvs tortures a man with large ears:

Here is the upper section of the voussures at St Mandé de Bridoire:

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A winged serpent can be seen on each side of the goose at the apex. Winged serpents are usually known as Wyverns in English, from Vouivre in French, a word that is probably cognate with viper. It is considered to be a variety of dragon, so perhaps not a griffin at all? The Vouivre in Marcel Aymé’s novel is a Mistress of Snakes like a beautiful, ageless girl, a supernatural being like Mélusine or Lamia who tempts men for their destruction. Aymé writes that she is a pagan survival among the people of the Jura, from Celtic times, but the legend is widespread and has its origins in Hellenic or pre-Hellenic mythology. Winged serpents have been portrayed in ancient civilizations from Egypt to India and South America. Their migration from Arabia, where they guarded frankincense trees, to Egypt was described by Herodotus. They are also called Amphipterotos (bi-winged) and Jaculus. The subject has been well covered by Heinz Insu Fenkl on his site : http://www.endicott-studio.com/rdrm/forcaduc.html He wrote, regarding my photo from St Mandé sur Bridoire, “That senmurv image you show would be taken as a dragon from an Asian point of view.” You can listen to his long talk on Eastern and Western dragons by clicking on the final link on this page :

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http://www.koreasociety.org/arts/gallery/page_3.html An elegant griffin of the winged serpent variety is combined with a lion at the remarkable church at Gargilesse-Dampierre on the edge of the Berry :

Among the sculptures there are several Green Men, while the crypt below has some beautiful frescoes. At Nanteuil en Vallée there is a fearsome beast on the tympanum:

with two affronted heads but hindquarters petering out into a wispy tail. This sculpture is now in the Musée Ste Croix in Poitiers.

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This tympanum showing a Master of Beasts between a pair of monsters whose tails become snakes and foliage is at Trevières, Normandy. A very worn capital at Bury St Edmunds depicts a similar scene. A doubtful griffin variant, I will expand my observations on these beasts in another article, on Manticores. I am indebted to Joseph Niggs for drawing my attention to a fascinating engraving by Albrecht Dürer, in the British Museum, in which you can see a Griffin below a Green Man :

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He writes, “It's a detail in the largest known woodcut ever produced, Albrecht Durer's "Triumphal Arch of Maximilian I" (1512). (A print of the 100-square-foot work hangs in a first-floor hallway of the British Museum near entrances to the rest rooms and restaurant.” While anachronistic in the context of this article, this image is interesting as possibly deriving from a Romanesque sculpture such as the one from Chatillon sur Indre, below :

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Here, a small Green Man appears on each front angle of the capital over a Senmurv. The two Senmurvs are posed in a heraldic way, but their heads bow down towards their neatly-curled tails, away from each other, humbly and courteously, as though wishing to avoid confrontation. Senmurvs also appear – separated by other corbels – on the corbel table on the façade of the church at St Privat des Prés, Dordogne :

St Privat des Prés, Dordogne, two modern senmurv corbels, plus one from Retaud, Saintonge At Mozac in the Auvergne, where the capitals are said to be influenced by sculptures of antiquity, this one seems to have seal flippers with foliage sprouting from one them. (See also, my Note & Query “Are Harpies Sirens?”).

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Hippogriffs are a form of griffin that is more winged horse than winged lion. The beasts on a frieze from the cathedral at Angouleme are winged horses among foliage; but the griffins and chalice from Mozac and Brioude, in the Auvergne are hippogriffs:

Angouleme Cathedral : winged horse in foliage frieze on façade

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Mozac, Auvergne, Hippogriffs & chalice Brioude, Auvergne, Griffins & chalice They have beards and beaks, while those at Mozac have foliate tails

The chubby little hippogriffs in the right bay have baby faces and seem to be playing rather than fighting. On their left is a rather jolly Green Man who nevertheless seems to have little horns like a devil, made of the same foliage as his ears and the fronds which issue from his mouth. Supporting these sculptures, or keeping them in balance, is the pleasant head of a woman wearing a wimple. All these sculptures are on the South wall of the church at Chatillon sur Indre in the Berry.

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On the Spanish side of the Pyrenees at Besalù, this capital of Green Men and a double-bodied hippogriff is found by the entrance to San Vicenc. The Green Man (or perhaps Beast) is holding the hippogriffs’ wing tips in his mouth as well as his own foliage. More sinister, is this monster from Siecq, with griffins trapped in its jaws by their snaky tails :

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These hippogriffs come from capitals in the Musée Crozatier, Le Puy en Velay. They were formerly in the cloister of Le Puy Cathedral. The Cathedral of St Front at Périgueux had hippogriffs on metopes that once decorated the tower :

They are now in the Musée du Périgord. The church at Lalande de Fronsac in the Gironde has this hippogriffs capital left of the entrance. We could call them “Green Hippogriffs” as their feet and tails end in stylized leaves while stems and foliage bind them together.

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At Civray, Vienne, there is a pair of hippogriffs with green tails and hindlegs, while these splendid specimens from Gensac la Pallue in the Saintonge are certainly Green hippogriffs:

I have been looking into the descriptions of Griffins by the medieval writers Isidore of Seville and Hrabanus Maurus. For easy access to the biographies and quotations below, I am indebted to that marvellous resource, “The Medieval Bestiary”, http://bestiary.ca/ and http://www.mun.ca/rabanus/ : This url is a link to the Griffin page : http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast151.htm

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Griffin (Gripes) page from Bestairy (Harley 4751 MS), Salisbury, 13thc, The British Library In the VIc, Isidore of Seville wrote in his Etymologiae : [12.2.17] Grypes vocatur, quod sit animal pinnatum et quadrupes. Hoc genus ferarum in Hyperboreis nascitur montibus. Omni parte corporis leones sunt; alis et facie aquilis similes; equis vehementer infesti. Nam et homines visos discerpunt. "The Gryphes are so called because they are winged quadrupeds. This kind of wild beast is found in the Hyperborean Mountains. In every part of their body they are lions, and in wings and head are like eagles, and they are fierce enemies of horses. Moreover they tear men to pieces." This is what Hrabanus Maurus has to say about the Griffin a couple of centuries later: Gripes uocatur quod sit animal pennatum. Et quadrupes, hoc genus ferarum in Iperboreis nascitur montibus omni parte corporis leones sunt alis et fatiae aquilis similes equis uehemente infesti. Nam et homines uisos discerpunt. Hi possunt significare ferocitatem persecutorum et elationum superborum, qui in festi sunt hominibus, qui simpliciatem Christianam sequuntur, et rationabiliter uiuunt. Quoted from The Medieval Bestiary: Animals in the Middle Ages : http://bestlatin.net/zoo/gryphon.htm It will be seen that Hrabanus has based his paragraph very closely on that of Isidore.

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However, many medieval bestiaries are indebted to a work of the 4thc called the Physiologus. The late E P Evans of the Universities of Michigan and Munich wrote about it in 1896, but I think it is still relevant and full of useful information. I have placed his work on the Articles page of my web site: http://www.green-man-of-cercles.org/articles/animal_symbolism_in_ecclesiastical_architecture.pdf By the time of Dante, it was customary to see griffins in an entirely positive way, equated with Christ himself. There are several references to griffins in “The Divine Comedy”, which can be followed most conveniently here : http://italian.about.com/sitesearch.htm?terms=griffin%20dante&SUName=italian&TopNode=4482&type=1 This is one of William Blake’s illustrations :

My own feeling is that Griffins can never be assumed to be either positive or negative symbols but can be either, depending on the time, place or context in which they are depicted. However, in parallel with other symbols in art such as snakes, for example, they are more often “good” in antiquity but “bad” in a Christian context.

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(To be continued) Julianna Lees – Montagrier 2009 Some Varieties of Griffin illustrated above : Griffins with peacock or snake tails – Senmurvs Arles-sur-Tech, Roussillon, 66 Bridekirk font, Cumbria Brive-la-Gaillarde, 19, cathedral, capital Byzantine silk panel from the Louvre Chatillon sur Indre, 37, in the Berry – with a Green Man Civray, Vienne, 86, frieze on façade Geay, Saintonge, 16 Macqueville, Saintonge, 17 Siecq, Saintonge, 16 Kaboul museum, Master of Beasts jewel Matha Marestay, Saintonge, 17 Moissac, Quercy, 82, frieze on capital of Miraculous Draught in cloister Nanteuil en Vallée, Angoumois, 16, Senmurv on tympanum Paulnay, Berry, 37, Senmurv and Harpy with men’s heads Pavia, Senmurv on tomb of the Abbess Theodote Retaud, 17, Senmurv corbel Sassanide plate from the Hermitage museum St Mandé sur Bridoire, Saintonge, 16, Senmurv on Voussures St Privat des Prés, Dordogne, 24, corbels Griffins with eagle heads or beaks Brive cathedral, 19, capital Civray, Vienne, 86, frieze on façade Cologne, Schnutgen Museum Fleuriel, Haute Auvergne, 03 Geay, Saintonge, 16 Moissac, Quercy, 82, frieze on capital of St Martin in cloister Otranto, Italy, mosaic of Alexander in the cathedral Poitiers, Vienne, 86, corbel in Baptistry San Marco, Venice, bas relief of Alexander Sigogne, Saintonge, 17 Trier, Landesmuseum Griffins that are like lions with wings Castelviel, Gironde, 33, winged lion griffins Civray, Vienne, 86, frieze on façade Thracian silver plate from Rogozen, 5thc BC Serrabonne, 66, Rousillon, capital on east arch to tribune Sigogne, Saintonge, 16

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Griffins like horses with wings - hippogriffs Chatillon sur Indre, Berry, 37 Espira de l’Agly, 66, Rousillon Lalande de Fronsac, 33, Gironde, hippogriff left of entrance Mozac, Auvergne, 63, hippogriffs and chalice on capital Périgueux, Musée du Périgord, 24, two metopes from the tower of the Cathedral Gensac la Pallue, Saintonge, 17, capital