- This topic has 8 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 14 years, 3 months ago by .
-
Posts
-
Hey Melody! I wanted to share with you some griffin pictures I took while in Egypt last fall. These pictures were taken at the Temple of Edfu, a temple dedicated to the falcon god Horus. In these pictures he has a lions back end making him a griffin. I love early art of griffins. Do you think you would ever sculpt a ancient Griffin? or maybe paint? 🙂
Griffinlover wrote:Hey Melody! I wanted to share with you some griffin pictures I took while in Egypt last fall. These pictures were taken at the Temple of Edfu, a temple dedicated to the falcon god Horus. In these pictures he has a lions back end making him a griffin. I love early art of griffins. Do you think you would ever sculpt a ancient Griffin? or maybe paint? 🙂
Well how about that? I have never seen an Egyptian griffin before, I thought they were Assyrian in origin! And he has a falcon head! Gorgeous! I have done griffins similar to this one
( lion’s body with a falcon head) as original ceramic pieces, but they didn’t sell! I figured it was because they didn’t have ears and eagle paws like “normal” griffins, so I have never made them like that again!Oh did you Melody!
Is there a picture of it? I don’t think I have ever seen one. I would so buy one if it were an option now. btw there is an ancient Egyptian myth about Griffins. They were important to the ancient Egyptians that a lot of people don’t seem to realize. I know there were many griffin myths in Persian, Greek and Roman. But to the Egyptians Horus was the protector of Pharaoh and to make him both falcon and lion is very symbolic. In one of my thesis papers I am going to write about the relevance of Griffins(gryphons) to the ancient world. I will post it on here when I write it if that is ok. It might be a while. I am on a thesis now that will take a few years to write and will be going back to Egypt to research. I will continue to research griffins as I go on since they are my favorite creature. I even took pictures of griffins in Rome and Pompeii if you would like to see them.Griffinlover wrote:Oh did you Melody!
Is there a picture of it? I don’t think I have ever seen one. I would so buy one if it were an option now. btw there is an ancient Egyptian myth about Griffins. They were important to the ancient Egyptians that a lot of people don’t seem to realize. I know there were many griffin myths in Persian, Greek and Roman. But to the Egyptians Horus was the protector of Pharaoh and to make him both falcon and lion is very symbolic. In one of my thesis papers I am going to write about the relevance of Griffins(gryphons) to the ancient world. I will post it on here when I write it if that is ok. It might be a while. I am on a thesis now that will take a few years to write and will be going back to Egypt to research. I will continue to research griffins as I go on since they are my favorite creature. I even took pictures of griffins in Rome and Pompeii if you would like to see them.No, I don’t have a picture of that griffin family! Most of the photos I took didn’t turn out, so I have almost no pictures of any of the pieces that were in that batch of ceramic sculpture. It was a mother “Kitty-hawk” and her family. They eventually were sold, but long after the other pieces in the show.
Here is a blog I did about that show: http://www.windstoneeditions.com/drupal/node/46When working on a past painting, I did a LOT of research into Sphinxes.. it seems that they can be depicted as we know them with a leonine body and the head of a person, but they were also depicted with a leonine body and the head of either a ram( crio-sphinx) or a falcon (hieraco-sphinx)! I think those are probably sphinxes?? I pulled my information out of several books but here are a few links: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1902446/mythological_creatures_the_sphinx.html?cat=7 http://www.lizaphoenix.com/encyclopedia/sphinx.shtml
I suspect that they are either hieraco-sphinxes, or a lion-bodied Horus. I’ve even seen a Horus sculpture with the body of a crocodile!
Volunteer mod- I'm here to help! Email me for the best response: nambroth at gmail.com
My art: featherdust.comYou are probably right Jennifer. I am thinking Horus has a lions body is because Horus was the protector of Pharaoh and so were lions. It was interesting I was at a lecture in front of the Sphinx, with Dr.Zahi Hawass and he was saying that one theory that the Sphinx might be half lion is because lions use to hang around the grave yards. Kind of like Anubis, the jackal, is the god of embalming. The Sphinx is protecting the Royal burial grounds. Kind of a neat concept.
Melody am I remembering correctly that you have made a Sphinx?
The Heirocosphinx is mistakenly thought to be falcon headed but is in fact hawk-headed; if you look closely at the eye of the creature you will notice the lack of the vertical stripe emanating from the eye – these were the dark markings of the Peregrine Falcon (Horus). Also, if you observe the tail of the creature you’ll see that it’s not spade-ended representing fur (such as in Sekmet’s case) but it’s comparably bulbous to the cobra adjacent.
Hardly any documentation of this creature is found outside of Herodotus and Pliny, but it’s proper name is “Opinicus” – it is a creature with a bird’s head and a lion’s body. Originally thought to be a dragon of sorts by the Greeks, it was later amalgamated into their myth as the Greek gryphon, the “Gyrphon” – head of the gyrfalcon (Gry), body of a lion (on) and had a serpent’s tail. Later, with the interaction with the Peloponnese who were of Assyrian decent, the Griffin symbol took on the form of half eagle, half lion (no mention of the tail, though art depicts it as spade), and by the crusades it was strictly the eagle/lion hybrid, representing the two creatures symbolizing the British at the time.
It’s a little funny, but Melody’s “poads” always reminded me of baby Opinici – sure they’re cute now, but wait till they get hungry!
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
