They once carried a sun god across the sky, stood guard over golden treasures, and even protected mighty Zeus with their sharp beaks; Myths of griffins flourished in many ancient civilizations and persist in popular culture to this day.
The spread of such monstrous beaked hybrids across cultures has led some researchers to believe that the inspiration for these fantastic beasts lay in reality, attributing the origin of their mythical existence to the discovery of fossilized dinosaur bones in Asia.
Two researchers from the University of Portsmouth have now put forward their case, arguing that the dinosaur-griffin origin story is itself a myth.
“Not all mythological creatures require explanations through fossils,” says paleontologist Mark Witton.
“Invoking a role for dinosaurs in griffin knowledge, especially species from distant lands like protoceratops, not only introduces unnecessary complexity and inconsistency into their origins, but also relies on interpretations and propositions that do not stand up to scrutiny.”
Tales of a beast with the head and forelimbs of a predator and the body of a lion were attributed to Central Asia by ancient Greek and Roman authors. The spread of such stories along international trade routes led classical folklorist Adrienne Mayo to suggest some 30 years ago that they were imagined by Scythian gold miners who encountered beaked dinosaurs like protoceratops. Since then, this has become the popular theory of how the griffin myths began.
In re-evaluating the fossil record, Witton and his colleague Richard Hing found a number of inconsistencies in this idea.
Griffins were considered guardians in ancient Greece, often associated with guarding gold hoards – hence the proposed association with gold miners.
There’s one problem: Protoceratops fossils have never actually been found near gold.
“There is an assumption that dinosaur skeletons are discovered half-exposed, lying almost like the remains of recently deceased animals,” explains Witton. “But in general, only part of an eroding dinosaur skeleton will be visible to the naked eye, unnoticed by all but sharp-eyed fossil hunters.”
Furthermore, the myth of griffins existed in the Mediterranean, as depicted by a Mycenaean vase from at least the 12th century BC, hundreds of years before news of dinosaurs reached the same area.
Witton and Hing also point out that dinosaurs like Protoceratops are only griffin-like in that they have four limbs and a beak.
“There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the idea that ancient peoples found dinosaur bones and incorporated them into their mythology,” Hing explains.
“But we must root such propositions in the realities of history, geography, and paleontology. Otherwise, they are mere speculation.”
There are examples of geomythology that are based on bits of truth. For example, stories of magical stone swallows with healing properties that fly free during storms they are likely to be shellfish fossils from the Devonian age of China, which they resemble the open wings of a bird.
Later in their history, fossil relics were also associated with griffins. During the Middle Ages, the horns of extinct ungulates and rhinoceroses were identified as the claws of the mythical beast. But these were centuries after the myths of the griffins were well established.
A sketch impressed into clay from a Mesopotamian seal found in what is now Iran is the oldest known depiction of a griffon, dating to 3000 BC.
“Everything about the origin of griffins is consistent with the traditional interpretation of them as imaginary beasts, just as their appearance is fully explained by being chimeras of large cats and birds of prey,” Witton concludes.
Sometimes a fantasy is just that, even when it’s spread across a vast amount of time and cultures.
This research was published in Interdisciplinary scientific reviews.