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Alice in Wonderland vocabulary
39 vocabulary words, including people, places, music, artists, etc.
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griffin
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tags: [heraldry] [mythology]
► definition
Definition: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. Because the lion was traditionally considered the king of the beasts, and the eagle the king of the birds, by the Middle Ages, the griffin was thought to be an especially powerful and majestic creature. Since classical antiquity, griffins were known for guarding treasures and priceless possessions.In Greek and Roman texts, griffins and Arimaspians were associated with gold deposits of Central Asia. Indeed, as Pliny the Elder wrote, "griffins were said to lay eggs in burrows on the ground and these nests contained gold nuggets."In medieval heraldry, the griffin became a Christian symbol of divine power and a guardian of the divine.[...]text from Wikipedia, licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
image: by John Vinycomb, Fictitious & Symbolic Creatures in Art (1906)
► uses
Uses:
They very soon came upon a Gryphon, lying fast asleep in the sun. (If you don't know what a Gryphon is, look at the picture.)
Lewis Caroll. Alice in Wonderland (1865)
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“Percy!” hissed Ron, pulling Harry behind a large stone griffin.
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The circles of his eyen in his head
They glowed betwixte yellow and red,
And like a griffin looked he about,
With kemped haires on his browes stout;
They glowed betwixte yellow and red,
And like a griffin looked he about,
With kemped haires on his browes stout;
Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales: The Knight's Tale (1400)
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