Origin of griffins

Proto-Elamite seal, 3000 BC. A griffin, followed by ibex goat, or goitered gazelle...

From "The Elamite Cylinder Seal Corpus, c.3500 - 1000 BC" volume II part I

Finally a proof (at least to me 🙂) that griffin is a complex animal calendar marker...

If you look up "griffin", this is what you get: "The griffin, griffon, or gryphon is a legendary creature with the body, tail, and back legs of a lion; the head and wings of an eagle; and sometimes an eagle's talons as its front feet"...

Legendary creature? Nah...It's a complex animal calendar marker for autumn (Jul/Aug - Oct/Nov)...

Eeee, why, how?

If you wanted to depict this time period, using animal calendar markers how would you do it?

Well you could find an animal whose mating or birthing takes place in Jul/Aug and mark the beginning of autumn. And then you could find an animal whose mating or birthing takes place in Oct/Nov and mark the end of autumn...

Like for instance, you could take eurasian lions, whose main mating season starts in Jul/Aug...

In the "THE ASIATIC LION: A study of ecology and behaviour" by Paul Joslin we can read that based on the observation of the large number of wild lions, the mating season of the Asiatic lions starts in August and lasts until October. 

Which is why lion is the symbol of the hottest, driest part (Jul/Aug) of the hot, dry half of the year (Apr/May - Oct/Nov)...I talked about this in many of my posts. For instance in my post "Angra Mainyu", about this amazing Middle Assyrian Cylinder Seal with a "Lion-Dragon", 1300-1200 BC. 

Eurasian lion main mating season marks the beginning of autumn and spans the whole of autumn (Aug,Sep,Oct)...

Which is why lion is also the symbol for autumn. I talked about this in my post "Symbols of the seasons"... 

Oh by the way, the symbol for summer (Apr/May - Jul/Aug) is bull, because summer starts with the calving of wild Eurasian cattle. Which is why "lion killing bull" symbol found all over the place means "the end of summer, BEGINNING OF AUTUMN"

I talked about this in many of my posts. For instance "Cypriot stamp seal with cow and calf", about this amazing conoid stamp seal, Late Cypriot III. Cyprus (?), ca. 13th–12th c. BC. 

So, I guess, you could use lion as the symbol marking the beginning of autumn...What about the symbol for the end of autumn?

Well, you could take old world vultures, whose mating season starts in Oct/Nov, with synchronized flying mating dances...

Which is why Vulture (Eagle) is the symbol of for the END OF AUTUMN, beginning of winter...

I talked about this in many of my posts. For instance "Eagle dance", about this interesting cylinder seal from North Mesopotamia-Syria, 1800–1500 BC, from the Leroy Golf collection.

So now put these two symbols together, lion-eagle...And you get griffin...Symbol of autumn...Here they are on another amazing Proto Elamite seal from "The Elamite Cylinder Seal Corpus, c.3500 - 1000 BC" volume II part I

That I am right about the meaning of the griffin, can be seen from the fact that on the original seal griffin, symbol of autumn is followed by ibex goat (or goitered gazelle), both symbols of winter...

I wrote many posts about ibex goat as symbol of winter, because ibex mating season coincides with the beginning of winter (Oct/Nov). For instance "Goats with tree of life from Alalakh", about "rampant goats flanking tree of life" images discovered in Bronze Age city of Alalakh/Tell Atchana, located 20 km from Antakya (Antioch) in what is now Turkey's Hatay Province. 

I wrote many posts about about gazelle as symbol of winter, because gazelle mating season coincides with the beginning of winter (Oct/Nov). For instance "Mysterious creature", about this Akkadian Cylinder Seal dated to 2300-2200 BC. 

Oh, by the way, do you see the green branch between the griffin and the goat/gazelle? 

In Elam, the climatic year is divided into hot, dry half (Apr/May - Oct/Nov) and cool, wet half (Oct/Nov - Apr/May)...

It is the rain that arrives in Oct/Nov, at the end of autumn (griffin), beginning of winter (goat/gazelle) that made life in Elam possible...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...