Griffins, Sphinxes, And Dragons

Griffins–those creatures with the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle, and a bird’s beak and head–have been a part of human art and mythology for thousands of years. Although no one knows for sure when the first griffin was envisioned, we know that they were popular in the art of ancient Egypt and Middle Eastern cultures thousands of years before the Roman empire, and then spread to Greek and ultimately European cultures.

But how did those early humans come up with the idea of griffins, anyway?

For several decades, the prevailing view is that griffins were inspired by the ancients’ discovery of fossils–specifically, the fossilized bones of a dinosaur called Protoceratops found in Mongolia and northern China. The skull of Protoceratops had a beak-like mouth. The theory is that the Protoceratops fossils were seen by early humans and functioned as a “geomyth,” where the discovery of fossils or other geological phenomena spurs mythmaking. The theory is that humans hunting for gold found Protoceratops bones, envisioned a complete creature that looked like a griffin, and the myth was born and then spread west to the Middle East, Egypt, Greece, and Europe.

It’s an interesting theory, but a careful analysis now indicates that the Protoceratops story doesn’t really work. For one thing, there’s no reason to think there was gold or any other precious metal of interest to ancient humans in the areas where Protoceratops fossils have been found, or that humans would have cared enough about partially exposed bones to go through the laborious, painstaking process of unearthing the entire skeleton. The time frames don’t really work, either, and of course Protoceratops didn’t have wings.

We’ll probably never really know how early humans came up with the idea of griffins–or sphinxes, or dragons, or any of the other creatures found in mythology. But trying to find some scientific basis for cultural phenomena may just be looking at things the wrong way. Rather than proceeding from the assumption that the ancients needed to have some actual discovery to serve as their muse, perhaps we should conclude, instead, that human beings are creative by nature–creative enough for some long ago artist to envision fantastic combinations of existing creatures.

It’s pretty clear from cave paintings that art has been a part of human development for tens of thousands of years. It’s not a big step from cave paintings of humans hunting bulls to creation of a being with the head of a bird, the wings of an eagle, and the body of a lion. Let’s give ancient humans some credit for their inherent creativity and artistic impulses.