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<p>[QUOTE="Jochen1, post: 7286821, member: 103829"]Dear Friends of ancient mythology!</p><p><br /></p><p>Today I want to tell something about Griffins, which obviously seem to be related closely to Sphinxes. The myths about the fabolous peoples of the Arimasps and the Hyperboreans belong to their ambit.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>1st Coin:</b></p><p>Thrace, Abdera, 352-323 (VIII Period)</p><p>AR - Triobol, 1.5g, 12.98mm, 0°</p><p>Obv.: Griffin, jumping up l., peaked feathered wing directed diagonal upward, beak</p><p>slightly opened, his feet on club, laying with grip l.</p><p>above eight-pointed star</p><p>beneath MHNO</p><p>Rev.: square of lines, within head of Apollo(?), with short hair, laureate, r., field</p><p>barely deepened</p><p>around the square ABΔ / HPI / TE / ΩN</p><p>Ref.: AMNG II, 206 (3 ex., Copenhagen, London, Ratto)</p><p>rare, VF</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1275920[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>Note:</b></p><p>(1) The club was added to the coin depiction as a symbol of the sovereignty of the Heraklids after Abdera came under the rule of Philipp II from Makedonia 352 BC. Abdera, a Ionian foundation, probably of Teos, was a provincial city of the province of Macedonia since 341 BC. It was the birthplay of the important Pre-Socratic natural philosopher Demokritos who together with his teacher Leukippos was the inventor of the theory of atoms. Protagoras and Anaxarchos too came from here and the poet Anakreon of Teos settled here. Nevertheless in antiquity Abdera was hold as something like the German 'Schilda', a city full of fools.</p><p><br /></p><p>(2) There is the opinion too that the portait doesn't show Apollo but the hero Abderos.</p><p><br /></p><p><b> 2nd Coin:</b></p><p>Gallienus, AD 260-268 (sole reign)</p><p>Antoninianus, 3.27g</p><p>Obv.: IMP GALLIENVS AVG</p><p>Head, bearded, radiate, r.</p><p>Rev.: APOLLINI CONS AVG</p><p>Griffin, stg. l.</p><p>in ex. D</p><p>Ref.: RIC V/1,165; C.77</p><p>ex Romanorum</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1275922[/ATTACH]</p><p>Mythology:</p><p><br /></p><p><b>(1) The Arimasps and the Gold of the Griffins:</b></p><p>The griffins were mythological wingend beings with a lion's body and the forepart of an eagle. In his lost work '<i>Arimaspeia</i>' Aristeas of Prokennos reports at length how the griffins in India or in the Riphean Mountains north of the Black Sea rose gold in their gold mines, accumulates huge treasures and defend them against the Arimasps. The Arimasps were an one-eyed horse people, who tried to steal the gold from the griffins, so that permanently combats between them arose. According to Herodot Aristeas has visited the regions of the Scyths and the Issedones. The Arimasps were situated - so Herodot - further north of the Issedones. Aischylos for his work '<i>Prometheus Bound</i>' seem to have used his reports. He describes regions beyond the Caucasus Mountains where Gorgons, Griffins and Arimasps were living. The feature of one-eyeness goes back to Herodot who derives the name of Arimasps from Scythian '<i>arima</i>' = 'one' and '<i>spu</i>' = 'eye'. Others think it is Mongolian meaning 'mountain people' or Iranian where '<i>aspu</i>' = 'horse', meaning 'owner of a horse' </p><p><br /></p><p>When you are searching for gold you can successfully use griffins. If you are skilful they lead you to their gold treasures! This myth obviously plays in Scytia. The Scyths are well known for their skilfulness in working with gold and griffins were one of their favourite motifs.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>(2) Apollo and the Griffin:</b></p><p>I think it is not well known that Apollo always at the beginning of the winter betakes himself to the country of the Hyperboreans and stays there for the winter. The Hyperboreans were living in the extreme North beyond the Boreas, the cold north wind. Therefore it was the most delightful and most fertile country of eternal springtime and eternal youth. There Apollo was flying each on a swan or a griffin. Both animals were sacred to Apollo: The swan because of its singing and because he has played an important role at his birth, and the griffin because of his visionary abilities which were assigned to him. The people of Hyperboreans has venerated Apollo so much so that each of them was thought to be priest of Apollo. According to Pausanias (X, 5, 4) the Delphic Oracle was endowed by the Hyperboreans and according to Diodor (II, 47) Leto has come from the Hyperboreans. Regularly they sent votive offerings to the Apollo Oracle in Delphi. According to H.L.Ahrens the Hyperboreans originally were just the bringer of votive offerings and actually Apollo attendants. The myth of the country north of the Boreas then arise from a wrong etymology (Roscher)</p><p><br /></p><p>The fact behind this mythology can well be the cultural-historical procedure that this Apollo, the kithara playing Apollo, gifted in fine arts, was brought to Greece by the Dorians, and so was of Scythian-Pelasgian origin, in contrast to the other Apollo, shooting with bow and arrows, bringing - and ending - plagues, who came from Asia Minor. Both were melted to one deity not until later.</p><p><br /></p><p>The close connection between Apollo and the griffin can be seen on coins too. The antoninian of Gallienus above shows a griffin and along with it the legend APOLLINI CONS AVG, dedicated to Apollo the conservator of the emperor.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Alexander's Flight to Heaven:</b></p><p>In India - it is said - Alexander have met griffins. In the Alexander romance, a legendary biography from the 3rd century AD it is reported that Alexander in his desire to know everything has undertaken a flight to heaven. He let capture two griffins and starving. Then he sat down in a big basket and the animals hitched up to the vehicle. Two spears with horse-liver he held in front of their beaks. The starved griffins tried to reach the liver, started to beat their wings, raised into the air and were flying higher and higher. Alexander saw the countries of the earth under his feet laying there 'like a threshing-floor', enclosed by the sea 'like a snake'. But then a bird with a human face, may be an angel, came to him and blamed him for his hybris. Thereupon Alexander abandoned his undertaking, gave the meat to the griffons and landed safely. In the Middle Ages the Alexanderflight was equated with the Ascension of Christus.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Name and Origin:</b></p><p>The Greek name of griffin was <i>gryps</i>, Latin <i>gryphus</i>, derivated probably from the Indogermanic stem *<i>grabh</i>, to grip. Herder et alii wanted to find the griffin in the Cherub of the Old Testament, <i>gryps</i> = <i>kherub</i>. But recently this seems to be denied. There is neither a etymological nor a semantic connection, despite you can read this often.</p><p><br /></p><p>Originally the griffin, <i>'achech</i>, cames from the ancient Egyptian mythology, where he was mentioned already in the 4th century BC as heaven's being closely connected to the sun. The Mesopotamian griffin is known first c.1400 BC. And the Sumeric composite creatures of lion-griffins were rather dragons. Earlier the griffin is known in Syria where he was mentioned in the 2nd century BC. From the oriental Kulturkreis of the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Hettites and the Syrians the griffin was adopted into the Cretan-Mycenaen culture and from there since the Geometric Time into the Greek art. He is often depicted with a knob on his forehead whose meaning is unclear. According to ancient Greek myths the griffin was living in mountains and his lifespan was 60 years. North of the land of the Scyths a realm of gold-hoarding griffins should have been or have been a part of them.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Some meanings of the Griffin:</b></p><p>Because the griffin was a widespread fabulous animal for a long period of time he has several different meanings:</p><p><br /></p><p>(1) First he was a guardian, keeper and custodian of the gold, later of light, the sun and the divine. In this sense he became a symbol of divine power. The conception that griffins were pulling the chariot of the sun cames from Syria. Usually he is depicted calmly seated often with raised forepaw. Here he never appears as predator.</p><p><br /></p><p>(2) But he can be warlike too as the use of griffins on helmets an cuirasses point out. Surely here he is meant apotropaic. His depiction on sarcophaguses allows us to assume that he stands for eternity and immortality.</p><p><br /></p><p>(3) He means wisdom, ingenuity and foresight. In connection with Apollo too for visionary abilities.</p><p><br /></p><p>(4) Because he is built-up of the king of air and the king of animals he is seen as master over heaven and earth. In Middle Ages this naturally was Christus. So the griffin in his double character as terrestrial and aerial animal symbolized Christus.</p><p>(Wikipedia)</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Background:</b></p><p>If one approach the stories of mythological animals rationally then there are assumptions that the gold digging Scyths in the large deserts of Central Asia have found fossils of Protoceratops, a dinosaur frequently occuring in Cretaceous Age. This is true for the Gobi desert today. In this connection the Riphean Mountains were equated with the Altai Mountains. These finds could well have led to the myth of griffins. The Protoceratop has a big beak and his body remains slightly on that of a lion. When the Greeks came along the caravan routes in the direction to China, they took the tales about the griffin with them on their way back to the West.</p><p>(Wikipedia)</p><p><br /></p><p><b>History of Art:</b></p><p>Only some notes: According to the Kulturkreis and the era we find various depictions. So we find alternative depictions on the portals of Persepolis and of Persian or Babylonian walls, further on helmets, e.g. on the helmet of Athena Parthenos of Phidias on the Akropolis in Athens, on cuirasses or coins. The griffin was the crest animal of Teos - and then of Abdera - as powerful demonic guardian of Syrian type, in apotropaic sense. Griffins we find in arabesques, especially on Roman columns, and as acroteria on temples. Well known are the large griffon bowls. The cuirass of Trajan as Britannicus, now in the Lateran Museum, is decorated with pics of Arimasps who serve the griffins with drinks, above Sol is floating in his chariot. Hanfman et alii suggest that the fighters on the Ara Pacis of Augustus on the Campus Martis are rather Arimasps then Amazons, because Amazons as allies of the Trojans, the mythic ancestors of Augustus, would never been depicted as enemies.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have added:</p><p>(1) The pic of an Attic red-figured chalice krater showing the fight between a griffin and an Arimasp. At the l. side a Satyr is standing. Unknown artist, c.375-350 BC, Louvre/Paris</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1275923[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>(2) The pic of an Attic red-figured ´<i>kylix</i>' (dringing bowl) showing Apollo riding sidesaddle upon the back of a griffin. The god strums a lyre with one hand and holds a laurel branch in the other. He is on his way to the Hyperboreans. C.380 BC, Late classic to Early-Hellenistic, Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM) Vienna</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1275924[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>(3) A world map created according to the narrations of Herodot so that you have an idea of the geographical circumstances used in this article. At the very top you see the Riphean Mountains extending broadly from West to East where the griffins and the Arimasps were living.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1275925[/ATTACH]</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Sources:</b></p><p>(1) Herodot, Histories</p><p>(2) Aischylos, Prometheus Bound</p><p>(3) Pausanias, Voyages</p><p>(4) Diododor, Bibliotheke</p><p>(5) Physiologus</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Literature:</b></p><p>(1) Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher, Mythologie</p><p>(2) Der Kleine Pauly</p><p><br /></p><p>Online Sources:</p><p>(1) <a href="http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mythology/Griffin.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mythology/Griffin.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mythology/Griffin.html</a></p><p>(2) <a href="http://www.theoi.com/Thaumasios/Grypes.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.theoi.com/Thaumasios/Grypes.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.theoi.com/Thaumasios/Grypes.html</a></p><p>(3) Wikipedia</p><p><br /></p><p>I hope that something was new for you. And as always this article should be seen as starting point for own further researches!</p><p><br /></p><p>Best regards[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Jochen1, post: 7286821, member: 103829"]Dear Friends of ancient mythology! Today I want to tell something about Griffins, which obviously seem to be related closely to Sphinxes. The myths about the fabolous peoples of the Arimasps and the Hyperboreans belong to their ambit. [B]1st Coin:[/B] Thrace, Abdera, 352-323 (VIII Period) AR - Triobol, 1.5g, 12.98mm, 0° Obv.: Griffin, jumping up l., peaked feathered wing directed diagonal upward, beak slightly opened, his feet on club, laying with grip l. above eight-pointed star beneath MHNO Rev.: square of lines, within head of Apollo(?), with short hair, laureate, r., field barely deepened around the square ABΔ / HPI / TE / ΩN Ref.: AMNG II, 206 (3 ex., Copenhagen, London, Ratto) rare, VF [ATTACH=full]1275920[/ATTACH] [B]Note:[/B] (1) The club was added to the coin depiction as a symbol of the sovereignty of the Heraklids after Abdera came under the rule of Philipp II from Makedonia 352 BC. Abdera, a Ionian foundation, probably of Teos, was a provincial city of the province of Macedonia since 341 BC. It was the birthplay of the important Pre-Socratic natural philosopher Demokritos who together with his teacher Leukippos was the inventor of the theory of atoms. Protagoras and Anaxarchos too came from here and the poet Anakreon of Teos settled here. Nevertheless in antiquity Abdera was hold as something like the German 'Schilda', a city full of fools. (2) There is the opinion too that the portait doesn't show Apollo but the hero Abderos. [B] 2nd Coin:[/B] Gallienus, AD 260-268 (sole reign) Antoninianus, 3.27g Obv.: IMP GALLIENVS AVG Head, bearded, radiate, r. Rev.: APOLLINI CONS AVG Griffin, stg. l. in ex. D Ref.: RIC V/1,165; C.77 ex Romanorum [ATTACH=full]1275922[/ATTACH] Mythology: [B](1) The Arimasps and the Gold of the Griffins:[/B] The griffins were mythological wingend beings with a lion's body and the forepart of an eagle. In his lost work '[I]Arimaspeia[/I]' Aristeas of Prokennos reports at length how the griffins in India or in the Riphean Mountains north of the Black Sea rose gold in their gold mines, accumulates huge treasures and defend them against the Arimasps. The Arimasps were an one-eyed horse people, who tried to steal the gold from the griffins, so that permanently combats between them arose. According to Herodot Aristeas has visited the regions of the Scyths and the Issedones. The Arimasps were situated - so Herodot - further north of the Issedones. Aischylos for his work '[I]Prometheus Bound[/I]' seem to have used his reports. He describes regions beyond the Caucasus Mountains where Gorgons, Griffins and Arimasps were living. The feature of one-eyeness goes back to Herodot who derives the name of Arimasps from Scythian '[I]arima[/I]' = 'one' and '[I]spu[/I]' = 'eye'. Others think it is Mongolian meaning 'mountain people' or Iranian where '[I]aspu[/I]' = 'horse', meaning 'owner of a horse' When you are searching for gold you can successfully use griffins. If you are skilful they lead you to their gold treasures! This myth obviously plays in Scytia. The Scyths are well known for their skilfulness in working with gold and griffins were one of their favourite motifs. [B](2) Apollo and the Griffin:[/B] I think it is not well known that Apollo always at the beginning of the winter betakes himself to the country of the Hyperboreans and stays there for the winter. The Hyperboreans were living in the extreme North beyond the Boreas, the cold north wind. Therefore it was the most delightful and most fertile country of eternal springtime and eternal youth. There Apollo was flying each on a swan or a griffin. Both animals were sacred to Apollo: The swan because of its singing and because he has played an important role at his birth, and the griffin because of his visionary abilities which were assigned to him. The people of Hyperboreans has venerated Apollo so much so that each of them was thought to be priest of Apollo. According to Pausanias (X, 5, 4) the Delphic Oracle was endowed by the Hyperboreans and according to Diodor (II, 47) Leto has come from the Hyperboreans. Regularly they sent votive offerings to the Apollo Oracle in Delphi. According to H.L.Ahrens the Hyperboreans originally were just the bringer of votive offerings and actually Apollo attendants. The myth of the country north of the Boreas then arise from a wrong etymology (Roscher) The fact behind this mythology can well be the cultural-historical procedure that this Apollo, the kithara playing Apollo, gifted in fine arts, was brought to Greece by the Dorians, and so was of Scythian-Pelasgian origin, in contrast to the other Apollo, shooting with bow and arrows, bringing - and ending - plagues, who came from Asia Minor. Both were melted to one deity not until later. The close connection between Apollo and the griffin can be seen on coins too. The antoninian of Gallienus above shows a griffin and along with it the legend APOLLINI CONS AVG, dedicated to Apollo the conservator of the emperor. [B]Alexander's Flight to Heaven:[/B] In India - it is said - Alexander have met griffins. In the Alexander romance, a legendary biography from the 3rd century AD it is reported that Alexander in his desire to know everything has undertaken a flight to heaven. He let capture two griffins and starving. Then he sat down in a big basket and the animals hitched up to the vehicle. Two spears with horse-liver he held in front of their beaks. The starved griffins tried to reach the liver, started to beat their wings, raised into the air and were flying higher and higher. Alexander saw the countries of the earth under his feet laying there 'like a threshing-floor', enclosed by the sea 'like a snake'. But then a bird with a human face, may be an angel, came to him and blamed him for his hybris. Thereupon Alexander abandoned his undertaking, gave the meat to the griffons and landed safely. In the Middle Ages the Alexanderflight was equated with the Ascension of Christus. [B]Name and Origin:[/B] The Greek name of griffin was [I]gryps[/I], Latin [I]gryphus[/I], derivated probably from the Indogermanic stem *[I]grabh[/I], to grip. Herder et alii wanted to find the griffin in the Cherub of the Old Testament, [I]gryps[/I] = [I]kherub[/I]. But recently this seems to be denied. There is neither a etymological nor a semantic connection, despite you can read this often. Originally the griffin, [I]'achech[/I], cames from the ancient Egyptian mythology, where he was mentioned already in the 4th century BC as heaven's being closely connected to the sun. The Mesopotamian griffin is known first c.1400 BC. And the Sumeric composite creatures of lion-griffins were rather dragons. Earlier the griffin is known in Syria where he was mentioned in the 2nd century BC. From the oriental Kulturkreis of the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Hettites and the Syrians the griffin was adopted into the Cretan-Mycenaen culture and from there since the Geometric Time into the Greek art. He is often depicted with a knob on his forehead whose meaning is unclear. According to ancient Greek myths the griffin was living in mountains and his lifespan was 60 years. North of the land of the Scyths a realm of gold-hoarding griffins should have been or have been a part of them. [B]Some meanings of the Griffin:[/B] Because the griffin was a widespread fabulous animal for a long period of time he has several different meanings: (1) First he was a guardian, keeper and custodian of the gold, later of light, the sun and the divine. In this sense he became a symbol of divine power. The conception that griffins were pulling the chariot of the sun cames from Syria. Usually he is depicted calmly seated often with raised forepaw. Here he never appears as predator. (2) But he can be warlike too as the use of griffins on helmets an cuirasses point out. Surely here he is meant apotropaic. His depiction on sarcophaguses allows us to assume that he stands for eternity and immortality. (3) He means wisdom, ingenuity and foresight. In connection with Apollo too for visionary abilities. (4) Because he is built-up of the king of air and the king of animals he is seen as master over heaven and earth. In Middle Ages this naturally was Christus. So the griffin in his double character as terrestrial and aerial animal symbolized Christus. (Wikipedia) [B]Background:[/B] If one approach the stories of mythological animals rationally then there are assumptions that the gold digging Scyths in the large deserts of Central Asia have found fossils of Protoceratops, a dinosaur frequently occuring in Cretaceous Age. This is true for the Gobi desert today. In this connection the Riphean Mountains were equated with the Altai Mountains. These finds could well have led to the myth of griffins. The Protoceratop has a big beak and his body remains slightly on that of a lion. When the Greeks came along the caravan routes in the direction to China, they took the tales about the griffin with them on their way back to the West. (Wikipedia) [B]History of Art:[/B] Only some notes: According to the Kulturkreis and the era we find various depictions. So we find alternative depictions on the portals of Persepolis and of Persian or Babylonian walls, further on helmets, e.g. on the helmet of Athena Parthenos of Phidias on the Akropolis in Athens, on cuirasses or coins. The griffin was the crest animal of Teos - and then of Abdera - as powerful demonic guardian of Syrian type, in apotropaic sense. Griffins we find in arabesques, especially on Roman columns, and as acroteria on temples. Well known are the large griffon bowls. The cuirass of Trajan as Britannicus, now in the Lateran Museum, is decorated with pics of Arimasps who serve the griffins with drinks, above Sol is floating in his chariot. Hanfman et alii suggest that the fighters on the Ara Pacis of Augustus on the Campus Martis are rather Arimasps then Amazons, because Amazons as allies of the Trojans, the mythic ancestors of Augustus, would never been depicted as enemies. I have added: (1) The pic of an Attic red-figured chalice krater showing the fight between a griffin and an Arimasp. At the l. side a Satyr is standing. Unknown artist, c.375-350 BC, Louvre/Paris [ATTACH=full]1275923[/ATTACH] (2) The pic of an Attic red-figured ´[I]kylix[/I]' (dringing bowl) showing Apollo riding sidesaddle upon the back of a griffin. The god strums a lyre with one hand and holds a laurel branch in the other. He is on his way to the Hyperboreans. C.380 BC, Late classic to Early-Hellenistic, Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM) Vienna [ATTACH=full]1275924[/ATTACH] (3) A world map created according to the narrations of Herodot so that you have an idea of the geographical circumstances used in this article. At the very top you see the Riphean Mountains extending broadly from West to East where the griffins and the Arimasps were living. [ATTACH=full]1275925[/ATTACH] [B] Sources:[/B] (1) Herodot, Histories (2) Aischylos, Prometheus Bound (3) Pausanias, Voyages (4) Diododor, Bibliotheke (5) Physiologus [B]Literature:[/B] (1) Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher, Mythologie (2) Der Kleine Pauly Online Sources: (1) [URL]http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mythology/Griffin.html[/URL] (2) [URL]http://www.theoi.com/Thaumasios/Grypes.html[/URL] (3) Wikipedia I hope that something was new for you. And as always this article should be seen as starting point for own further researches! Best regards[/QUOTE]
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