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’.

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?"

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 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!”.

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!
Thanks for stopping by and visiting with us!
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Photography by Erin Janssen Photography © 2012
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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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