Real Origins of the Griffin: Myth or Dinosaur Misunderstanding?

In this episode of Wildly Curious (formerly For the Love of Nature), host Kim Baker explores the fascinating history of the griffin, the mythical creature with the body of a lion and the head of an eagle. Was this legendary beast inspired by real-world fossils, or is it purely a product of ancient imagination? Kim delves into theories that range from ancient fossils of beaked dinosaurs in the Gobi Desert to the widespread cultural significance of griffins throughout history. Join us as we uncover the true origins of one of mythology's most enduring creatures.

Perfect for mythology enthusiasts, history buffs, and anyone curious about how science and storytelling intertwine.

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to For the Love of Nature, a podcast where we tell you everything you needed to know about nature and probably more than you wanted to know. I'm Kim Baker, and it's miniseries time. For those of you just joining us, I'm filling in for a couple of weeks while Laura and Katie take a break and prepare for the next footlong season.
Throughout this miniseries, we're talking about the very real origins of mythical creatures. And although the stories are fantastical, there's usually a pretty reasonable and real explanation for why these creatures have captured our minds and hearts. In today's episode, we're going to talk about a mythical creature that I can only describe as humanity's first attempt at creating a Pokemon, the griffin.
Let's jump into it. Those who know me know that I've had a nearly 25-year love affair with Pokemon, which, for those of you who don't know, encompasses hundreds of cute anime characters created by our dear friends in Japan. Even my husband knows this is my longest relationship.
Pokemon and I are on our silver anniversary, and we're very happy together. What I love about Pokemon is how they often are inspired by real animals, and through the magic of animation and type-heavy turn-based battling, these creatures are given a bit of a twist to turn them into something entirely new. Well, except for the newest game, Flamigo, which I'm convinced is just a flamingo.
But I digress. So what does this have to do with a griffin? Well, much like Pokemon, this creature, at first glance, looks like a great animal mashup.
And also like Pokemon, it seems like throughout its history, it's taken much of the world by storm. To make sure we're all on the same page, let me describe the griffin to you. In its truest form, it has the body and tail of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle.
Depending on the depiction, its front legs are either lion paws and claws or eagle talons. And apparently sometimes it has feathery horse-like ears, which is kind of cute. Now, if you're thinking, Kim, that sounds a lot like Hagrid's hippogriff.
You're on the right track. According to the lore, when a griffin and a horse find love, their mating produces a hippogriff, which is probably best known as Buckbeak of the Harry Potter fandom. Like I mentioned before, depictions of griffins come up in quite a few places in ancient and not-so-agent cultures.
Representations of griffins or griffin-like creatures can be seen in ancient Egyptian art dating back to 3000 BC. And around the same time, griffins also appeared in cylinder seals and other Iranian art. In Iranian mythology, the griffin was called Shirdal, which means eagle lion.
Depictions of griffins or similar bird-headed, mammalian-bodied creatures keep popping up throughout the Iron and Bronze Ages. In what today we would call the Middle East and parts of West Central Asia. Griffin sculptures start showing up in Europe, namely in Italy in the Middle Ages, though the bronze sculpture found in Pisa, which seems to be the earliest sculpture found there, was determined to be of Islamic origin.
Moving through the Middle Ages, quite a bit of legend about the griffin pops up. Things like they mate for life, and once the mate dies, the widowed griffin spends the rest of its days alone, which is very romantic and sad. Its claws may have medicinal properties that can cure a variety of ailments.
Christians also decided that because it's both of land and of air, it's a symbol for Jesus, which is why it can be found as a sculpture in some churches. And at some point, it becomes widely known as a bold, fierce, protective creature, a defender of sorts. So it starts appearing on coats of arms, including those of Genoa seafarers and, my personal favorite, Polish nobility.
What's fascinating to me is that, unlike many other cultural, mythological, or religious creatures, the image of the Griffin was known and popularized for a long time in many different parts of the world. This is very different from even last week's topic, the Hydra, which is notably Greek in origin. So, if this creature was well regarded by so many groups of people, it has to have come from somewhere, right?
This is where I think the story gets even more interesting. It seems as if the real life origin of the Griffin starts somewhere in the Gobi Desert, which is spread over parts of Mongolia and China. And it has a little something to do with fossils.
In the early 1990s, scientists suggested that the ancient Scythian people may have found fossils of Protoceratops and other beak dinosaurs. The Scythian people were a nomadic group that traveled by horseback and mined gold in the general area of the Gobi Desert. And although finding dinosaur fossils is rare in most places, areas in and near the Gobi Desert have been known to erode dramatically, exposing well-preserved fossils.
So imagine if you're a person in 800 BC seeing a protoceratops skeleton for the first time. Without context, it might be easy to mistake the shoulder blades for wings, especially if the fossilized skeleton wasn't a complete skeleton. Because the Scythian people moved from place to place over time, they came in contact with the Greeks and other groups, which may have spread this popular myth.
However, British paleontologists have criticized this theory recently, arguing that the Griffin bodies look more like today's big cats, and this may just be a mythical take on known creatures. I think this Griffin origin story is fascinating, especially because people are still theorizing and arguing about it today. What do you think?
Do you agree with me that the Griffin is just a mythological attempt at Pokemon? Or do you lean more toward the dinosaur theory of the 1990s? Send us an email, or comment on our social media and let us know.
That's all for this episode, until next time. Bye.