![]() ![]() Though most depictions show the griffin as having a brownish color, different authors have given varied descriptions of the color of the griffin. ![]() GRIFFIN MYTHICAL CREATURE FULLAnd of their ribs and of the pens of their wings, men make bows, full strong, to shoot with arrows and quarrels. For he hath his talons so long and so large and great upon his feet, as though they were horns of great oxen or of bugles or of kine, so that men make cups of them to drink of. For one griffin there will bear, flying to his nest, a great horse, if he may find him at the point, or two oxen yoked together as they go at the plough. But one griffin hath the body more great and is more strong than eight lions, of such lions as be on this half, and more great and stronger than an hundred eagles such as we have amongst us. Some men say that they have the body upward as an eagle and beneath as a lion and truly they say sooth, that they be of that shape. In that country be many griffins, more plenty than in any other country. In " The Travels of Sir John Mandeville," which was a supposed travel memoire written in the 14th century CE by an unknown author, the griffin is described as being extremely large and powerful- with talons the size of ox's horns and the pens of their feathers large enough to make arrows out of: It also possesses feathered eagle wings and prominent, horse-like ears. Its eagle head and neck are covered in (typically brown) feathers that fade into the tawny fur of a lion, and its forelegs are eagle talons. The griffin is usually depicted with four legs, wings and a beak. The term was used by the ancient Greeks to describe what modern people would refer to as a griffin, but could also used to describe dragons. In ancient Greece the term γρύψ ( grū́ps) literally meant " curved or hooked nose," referencing the griffin's curved beak. ![]() The Old French " grifon" was derived from the Late Latin " gryphus," which itself was based off of a misspelling of the ancient Greek " grypus," a variant of the ancient Greek term γρύψ ( grū́ps). Griffin derives from the Old French " grifon," which was a word for both the mythical creature as well as birds of prey more generally.
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