Hrabanus Maurus on Griffins
Patrologia Latina Cursus Completus LXIII, 222A
Griphes vocatur, quod sit animal pennatum et quadrupes. Hoc genus in Hyperboreis nascitur montibus. Omni parte corporis leones sunt, alis et facie aquilis similes, equis vehementer infesti. Nam et homines vivos discerpunt. Hi possunt significare ferocitatem persecutorum, et elationem superborum, qui infesti sunt hominibus, qui simplicitatem Christianam sequuntur et rationabiliter vivunt.
Paraphrase and commentary
- The griffin takes its name from the fact that it is a feathered quadruped animal. This type of animals is born in the Hyperborean mountains. In every part of their body they are like lions, [but] with the wings and face of birds. They are hostile to horses, and they can tear humans in pieces. They signify the atrocity of persecutors and the pride of the haughty men that are dangerous to Christians.i
The Griffins were imaginary beasts, usually represented having the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. The etymology of their name comes from the Greek word γρύψ, gen. γρῡπός – griffin which referred to the hooked beak of the creature (the Greek verb γρῡπτω – become bent; thus the adjective γρῡπός – hook-nosed). They were popular in ancient Greaco-Roman mythology representing the unification of phisical strenght of the lion as king of the animals and the eagle as king of the birds.
Griffins are not mentioned anywhere in the Bible. Hrabanus Maurus followed here Isidore of Seville account of the physical description of the griffin (Isidore of Seville, Etymologies, book XII, 2:17), adding to it the symbolic meaning of the creature symbolizing the atrocity of persecution. Bede also mentioned griffins saying that unclean spirits molest the virtue of man in the shape of griffins (Bede, Explanatio Apocalypsis, book III, ch. 21).
Despite this rather negative image of the griffins they are greatly used as heraldic symbols.
Footnotes
i See for example the illumination in MS London, British Library, Harley 4751, fol. 7v. (Bestiary from the 13th c. drawing from Isidore’s Etymologies)
