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Thursday 9 February 2012

I Say Gryphon, You Say Griffin - Mythical Creatures of the Sky


Welcome to my third instalment about mythical creatures. The first two are here, on dragons and fantastical horses. Today we’re looking at the fearsome beasts populating our fantastical skies. 

If you’re a fantasy writer you probably spell this ‘Gryphon’. 

Is there a fantasy writer alive who can resist the lure of replacing an ‘i’ with a ‘y’ or an ‘f’ with a ‘p’? It just looks so much more mystical! I’m guilty as charged, so I am here to introduce you to the gryphon (or griffin, maybe griffon, if you’re not a fantasy writer!).

The gryphon has the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. The gryphon inherited a certain amount of status from the traditional belief the lion was king of the beasts. As such, the gryphon was considered powerful and majestic and itself a king of creatures. It was also the symbol of divine power and a guardian of the divine.

Traditionally, gryphons were found guarding treasures and priceless possession. That’s some heavy duty guard dog! 

Gryphons appear in a number of fantasy books but the only one I can think of off the top of my head is Mercedes Lackey’s ‘Valdemar’ books. Oh yeah… and those weird War of Power books. That was possibly a genre confusion between ‘fantasy’ and ‘erotica’. 

Sphinx – Greek not Egyptian!

In the Greek tradition, the sphinx is part lion, part woman and part eagle. Yep, always a woman. Sorry guys, you lucked out on this one, no lion and eagle bits for you! The sphinx has the head of a  woman, the body of a lion, and the wings of a bird and was the guardian of the city of Thebes. Visitors were only permitted to pass after they answered this riddle:
 "Which creature in the morning goes on four feet, at noon on two, and in the evening upon three?"
If you didn’t give the right answer, the sphinx strangled and devoured anyone who couldn’t answer the riddle. Eww! Certainly discourages hasty answers. I wonder how long you could think about it and if you could just decide to leave instead of answering?

The riddle was ultimately answered by Oedipus. Apparently devastated, the sphinx threw herself from a high rock and died. Seems a bit strange for something with wings, but it’s preferable to the alternative ending, which is she devoured herself. Double eww!

The death of the sphinx was followed by the rise of the new Olympian deities.

I can’t think of a book I’ve read with a sphinx, but I’ve got one featuring in my book The Blood Infernal. They also cropped up in some of the really old Dungeons & Dragons computer games, the Forgotten Realms ones I think. True to form, they asked riddles!

Phoenix – Holy Smoke!

The phoenix is a bird described with colourful plumage and a tail, most traditionally, of gold and scarlet (like Fawkes in the Harry Potter movies). Some legends describe the tail feathers as blue, green or purple, but really red and gold makes more sense. It fits with the fire theme, yeah? It’s so important to make an impact! The phoenix also has a beautiful song.

The phoenix lived anywhere between 500 – 1000 years before bursting into flame. OK, it builds a nest first, and then ignites. Close enough! It burns to ash and a new phoenix is born (or reborn) from the ashes (or sometimes an egg). I'm not sure why the nest is important. Legends differ as to whether the new phoenix is the offspring of the old phoenix or the old phoenix itself reborn. If the latter, this is one immortal bird!

The phoenix appears in Egyptian and Greek legends, but is described differently. To the Egyptians it was a stork or heron type bird, to the Greeks a peacock or eagle. In Greek tradition, the phoenix lived next to a well (in Phoenicia... surprise surprise). Each dawn it would bathe in the well and the Greek sun god, Helios, stopped his chariot to listen to the phoenix sing. Naturally, his chariot was the sun... your preferred vehicle of choice is the sun too, isn’t it? No? Time for an upgrade, Helios style!


Fawkes of Harry Potter fame is likely the most well-known phoenix currently, but phoenixes also appear in many other fantasy books. 

Hippogriff – Is That A Hippo Griffin Hybrid?

Actually the hippogriff has nothing to do with hippos! Supposedly it was the offspring of a gryphon and a mare (female horse). That tends to make it a little rare since gryphons look at horses more as, well, lunch than lover! Interestingly, it’s been suggested this gave rise to the expression  "to mate griffins with horses" – or in modern language, “pigs might fly!”. 

It probably comes as no surprise, then, to know the hippogriff was a symbol of impossibility and love. Oh... how sweet.

Hippogriffs do all right for themselves, apparently being faster, stronger and smarter than their fathers (sorry guys, looks like Mum holds all the cards in this one!) and able to travel at the speed of lightning. On the other hand, hippogriffs were easier to tame than gryphons, I guess because they were half domesticated animal to start with. I want me a hippogriff!

The most well-known hippogriff of the moment is Buckbeak from Harry Potter. I can’t think of another book featuring a hippogriff, but they also appeared in the Dungeons & Dragons computer games. 

What mythical creature would you like to see in future instalments? Or do you have a burning, unanswered question about a mythical creature? Let me know in the comments!

 






Photography by Erin Janssen Photography © 2012

You can find other posts in mythical creatures series here - Dragons, Fantastical Horses, Mythical Creatures of the Sea - Part 1 and Part 2, and Spirits of Inland Waterways

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29 comments:

ella.gray said...

Great post, Ciara! Sphinxes always remind me of The Neverending Story and the lightning bolts out of the eyes, LOL.

Ciara Ballintyne said...

Ah! The Never Ending Story. Sad to say I don't recall the sphinx from the movie - I kind of get stuck on the world's stupidest dragon. Of course it has been 20+ years since I last saw it!

Marjorie McAtee said...

You forgot that sphinxes are also part hairless cat. That's one of the same riddles that Gollum asked Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit.

Ciara Ballintyne said...

Indeed it is! I haven't read The Hobbit for a while but I always remember the one about the fish - what has a mouth, but never drinks, dressed in mail but never clinks. Or something like that. Must be the armour reference appealing to the fantasy in my brain!

sevwinters said...

Griffins also make an appearance in my novelette "The Curious Misadventures of Shamus McDougal." My favorite line in the story? 

“Silly Guardian. Never question a griffin who permits
you to ride on his back instead of in his belly.” 

Kelly Gamble said...

Thanks, Ciara. I love learning more about these mythical creatures. 

Ciara Ballintyne said...

 A most excellent point! Or in other words, never look a gift horse... er, griffin? in the mouth!

Ciara Ballintyne said...

 My pleasure. I have a whole series planned, and only because the first one seemed so popular, otherwise I would never have done more! I'm thinking when I run out common ones I'll move on to less well known creatures - ones even I need to research!

Dunnycat said...

Thank you Ciara thoroughly enjoyed it. It was great reading about these fascinating creatures are you going to be writing about others as well.

Ciara Ballintyne said...

You're welcome! Yes, I am planning a monthly post on mythical creatures.

Jeffrey N. Baker said...

As a person who had grown up playing D&D, I've never given these kings of things a second thought. They feel like a normal occurrence in my life, ha! 

Ciara Ballintyne said...

 Me too! But I've discovered this can be a mysterious and fascinating area for others.

Amberr Meadows said...

I love gryphons. At one time I almost committed to a tattoo of a Phoenix. Im glad I didn't, though, because it would have looked awful after pregnancy. Missed the bullet there. Enchanting post as always. :-)

Ciara Ballintyne said...

 The many, many times I've thought about a tattoo I've always been put off by what happens when it gets saggy. Pregnancy is a  quick way to do it, but let's face it, every thing goes saggy eventually... I would have to be a dragon girl though if I had. Love my dragons!

LBGale said...

Great post.  I've enjoyed this series so far.  For the future, I'd be interested in the creatures of the sea (since you've tackled the sky already)!

Ciara Ballintyne said...

 Thanks for letting me know what you'd like to see in the future. Silkies, mermaids, and sirens here we come!

Adam Gaylord said...

Good stuff. love fantasy beasts too! I just posted about how to create believable fantasy creatures.  Check it out:

http://adamsapple2day.blogspot.com/2012/03/tips-for-creating-believable-fantasy.html

Ciara Ballintyne said...

 Thanks, Adam!

lizzie said...

thanks for the info it will help me become a fantasy writer for sure!

Ciara Ballintyne said...

My pleasure, although the beauty of fantasy is you can take old things and put a different slant on them, or make up something entirely new!

jorgesnoopy said...

the battle of the labyrinth by rick riordan features a sphinx

Ciara Ballintyne said...

I'm probably going to put a sphinx in one of my books

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René Kåbis said...

Actually, the Gryphons of Mercedes Lackey’s ‘Valdemar’
books were just four-legged eagles -- they had hindlimbs like eagles (in addition to their forelimbs) and they had tailfeathers instead of feline tails. Which is how I like to distinguish between griffons and gryphons: The former are half-eagle and half-lion, the latter are just four-legged eagles.

Ciara Ballintyne said...

That didn't fit my memory of the Valdemar books, but admittedly it had been a while since I read them, so I looked it up. Valdemar Wiki describes them as "A magically created race with the head and legs of an eagle, the body of a lion, and the wings of a raptor,", and that certainly matches the cover art on some of the books.

René Kåbis said...

Yes, all four legs like an eagle’s, and the body of a lion - shaped like a lion. Even on the cover of the books and the illustrations within, the body was only in the shape of a lion - it was still covered in feathers. And there were many written references to the tail feathers instead of a lion's tail (such as when one of the characters runs into a tree and falls down, messing up tail feathers). So once again, to me the logic is sound if we call a four-legged eagle-like creature (which is *totally* covered in feathers, despite a lion-like body) a Gryphon, whereas a creature with the front half of an eagle and the rear half exactly like a lion (including fur, no feathers and a lion's tail) a Griffon.

Ciara Ballintyne said...

I'm not sure which pictures you are looking at. The cover of The White Gryphon, for example, has two eagle legs, two lion legs, and the body is furred. Some of the pictures I saw looked at first glance like they were totally feathered because of the perspective or the fur colour, but on closer examination appear to be furred. All the ones I have seen also have lion tails. This is a link to the picture from The White Gryphon I'm referring to

http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348591790l/176845.jpg

René Kåbis said...

Unfortunately, the vast majority of my books (3,000+, all hardcover) are in deep storage. As such, I am going to have to wait until my home library gets built in order to find my Valdemar books. Heck, with ≈200 banker’s boxes, I don’t even know what *corner* of the storage area they could be in. It could be a while…

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