Griffin Pictures, Ancient
This is my favorite section. On the web the ancient griffin is always related through the scanty literary evidence. By contrast, the physical evidence is enormous. From an early period, Greece was in intimate contact with southern Ukraine and the Scythian world in general
[1], and this region was a major exporter of both objects and iconography. Rather than through texts, it is likely that griffin information spread through the Greek (and later Roman) world primarily through
objects and the stories they carried, directly or indirectly.
Ideally, these images would be split between "Scythia and Neighboring Regions" and "Greek and Roman," with some of earler Near Eastern material also sequestered. This split ultimately proved impossible owing to the many edge cases—Greek Bosporan art, for example—and the lack of adequate labeling on many web images.
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Notes:
- The Athenian population survived on grain from southern Ukraine, and good relations with the Greek, non-Greek and mixed states of the northern Black Sea were a primary goal of Athenian foreign policy. Actual Scythians were resident in Athens, where Scythian slave-archers were as employed as a sort of police-force. (back)
Notice: Griffin can also be correctly spelled Griffon and Gryphon—at least. I use one or the other as whim takes me. So there.
All material © 2000–2005 Tim Spalding. Books presented in association with Amazon.com.
If you enjoy this site you may like this other site by me:
Mermaids on the Web. Similar site, but even larger, with over 1,320 pictures .
Angels on the Web. Images and other web resources on angels in Western culture, religion and art.