The Griffin is a mythical creature from Greek mythology, known as a half-eagle, half-lion in various cultures.
History[]
Legends[]
In legends and folklore, the beast guards the gold of the kings, as well as other priceless possessions. Moved into the far north, this ancient creature watches over the green gold inherent in the forests.
A griffin without wings, or a wingless eagle-headed lion, is called an alce or a keythong.
Griffins symbolize courage and vigilance repeatedly, much like eagles and lions are.
Abilities[]
Applications[]
- Alpha Beast
- Entity Lordship (As king of all creatures)
- Language of the Birds
- Avian Physiology
- Environmental Adaptation
- Raptor Physiology
- Dragon Slayer
- Enhanced Wisdom
- Feline Physiology
- God Beast Mimicry (certain species)
- Mineral Generation
- Gemstone Generation (Agate eggs)
- Gold Generation (Reward for riddle solving)
- Predator Instinct
- Spike Protrusion
- Tusk Protrusion
- Treasure Detection
- Trickery
Variations[]
- Cockatrice]]
- Hippogriff
- Ouroboros (snake head tail version)
- Ziz
Physical Appearance[]
The griffin has the body, tail, and back legs of a lion, and the head, front legs and wings of an eagle.
Members[]
Movies[]
- Unnamed Griffin(Alive in Tunnels
- Wenlock's Griffin (Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus)
Modern culture[]
TV[]
- Kamen Rider:
- Kamen Rider Wizard: Kamen Rider Beast has a Griffin familiar that seems to be the Classical style.
- Kamen Rider Zi-O: The title character's potential future self Ohma Zi-O wears black-and-gold armour with both lion and eagle motifs.
- Merlin (1998): Merlin and Arthur are attacked by creatures that Merlin calls "griffins". They look a little like monkeys with the patagia of a flying squirrel and the heads of hawks, and they act an awful, awful lot like the "raptors" in Jurassic Park.
- Merlin (2008): One episode has an opinicus, which acts pretty much as a one-time terror, eventually meeting its demise.
- Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Goldar is something of an odd example, as his leonine features include a muzzle. This, along with his fur colour and the shape of his forward fangs have lead some to assume he's a gorilla or wolf-man, but he is in fact an anthropomorphic griffin. This is backed up by his Zyuranger self being named Grifforzer. In season two, the Yellow Ranger had a Griffin Zord (as a Western version of its Dairanger counterpart, a Kirin).
Films[]
- All Creatures Big and Small: The two recurring antagonists are called 'Griffins', but closely resemble giant bats the size of big cats. They walk bipedally, have heart-shaped noses, and very tiny wings proportionate to the rest of their arms.
- DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp: At the end of the movie, the villain Merlock transforms into a gryphon as part of his One-Winged Angel act.
- Fantasia 2000: A gryphon can be seen among the various mythical creatures (the others being a dragon and a unicorn) that were mocking the animals as they were boarding Noah's Ark, and presumably drowned in the flood.
- Quest for Camelot has the classical griffin design, the black-feathered bird forequarters are proportionally much larger than the lion hindquarters, while the head is not particularly eagle-like — the beak, especially, resembles that of a vulture
- In Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus, wenlock turned his scraggly brown cat into a griffin when he became a sorcerer after stealing his old wand staff.
- In Onward, the griffin was seen in Ian's sweatshirt. Corey the was serving griffin nuggets at her Tavern.
Comics[]
- Star Wars Adventures: The Argora resembles a bright blue griffin with four eyes, and with four leonine legs.
- Superman: The Krypton Chronicles features Kryptonian hippogriffs called Tanthuo Flez being winged mammals with four horse legs and the head of a raptor.