About Griffins

Megasites | The basic info on griffins | Meaning and symbolism | Heraldry

Megasites

The Gryphon Pages, James Scott Spaid's comprehensive and attractive omnigatherum of griffin lore and images. Spaid has set out to produce the ultimate gryphon-content site, and has succeeded. Fortunately for this site, he doesn't focus on pictures, and he doesn't evaluate many outside sites.

The Gryphon Guild: The Gryphboard discussion forum. The forum is surprisingly active. If you're a huge fan of griffins, you've found your watering hole! Subfora include Guild Common Room (general), Literary Library (griffin fiction and poetry) and the Art Gallery.

Web Archive: The Gryphon's Eyrie by "Tirya," once the best griffomnigatherum on the web, it's now dead. But through the magic of the Web Archive, you can still visit. Includes a lengthy bibliography of Griffons in Literature.

The basic info on griffins

Wikipedia: Griffin. Good introduction—although the Classical angle needs work, and may get it from me. As usual, Wikipedia's hyperlinks are the best feature.

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica. (See below Griffin, GA.)

Dave's Mythical Creatures and Places. This is a short description, so the author is particularly commended for giving three primary-source citations, including Isidore of Seville, the man.

Griffins in Greek antiquity, "The Grypes" from Aaron Atsma's Theoi Project, cataloguing Greek divinities, heroes and monters. Atsma has compiled a very good selection of mostly Greek references to grypes (griffins), including a passage from Nonnus' Dionysiaka not found elsewhere online.

Occultopedia: Griffin. Good basic mythological info.

Encyclopedia Mythica: Griffin by Micha F. Lindemans, with a hyperlinked version of Bulfinch on Griffons.

Web Archive: Hans Biedermann's Dictionary of Symbolism (no pub. info). Good round-up.

Myth Man's Homework Help Center: The Griffin. Information from various sources, with griffin art in between.

Crystallinks. Somewhat haphazardly compiled.

Gods, Heroes and Myth.

KidzWorld. Junk--for example repeating that "In hieroglyphics, griffins represent heat and summer," as if hieroglyphs had never been deciphered. Welcome to the 19th century.

Monstrous: Griffins.

Columbia Encyclopedia: Griffin. Minimal.

Gryphons from Gothos(artist: Jillian Bornak), partially on griffins in "earth history," partially on griffins in her "gothos" world.

Meaning and symbolism

ChristStory Bestiary: Griffin, King of Heaven and Earth. Suzetta Tucker explains the griffin's Christian symbolism. Tucker's ChristStory is a useful resource for much now-baffling symbolism, eg., how the Pelican stands for Christ . And I was completely unaware that S. Macarius was tormented by the devil in the shape of an enormous camel!

The Gryphon Today from James Scott Spaid's The Gryphon Pages.

The Biblical Zoo: The Indian Gryphon . In honor of Purim the Tisch Family Zoological Gardens in Jerusalem presents a mythical animal—what a neat tradition. The story, involving a battle between a Gryphon and a Chimera, hits the purim theme of the triumph of the underdog.

Heraldry

The Griffin Bird (Griffins in Heraldry) by Jan Griep. Speaking as someone with no prior interest in heradry, I found this page fascinating. Griep plots all the regions, cities and towns with griffons on their coats of arms—a surprising number are in the now-split region of Pomerania—and then goes through them, with illustrations. Griep's larger project is to chart the names Griep, Grijp, Grip and Gryp in Europe and elsewhere. If you have information to contribute, see his How to Participate page.

The Gryphon In Heraldry from from James Scott Spaid's The Gryphon Pages.

The Heraldic Definition of Griffin from Shield and Crest: An account of the Art and Science of Heraldry by Julian Franklyn (down the page).