Hippogryph/Hippogriff

The Hippogryph (Hippogriff): a Horse (Mare) – Gryphon Hybrid

According to ancient Greek legend, gryphons mated with horses, producing a creature called a “hippogryph”.  It had the front half of an eagle and the hind of a horse.

The second recorded mention was made by the Latin poet Virgil in his Eclogues.  It was used by Ludovico Ariosto in his Orlando Furioso, at the beginning of the 16th century.  Within the poem, the hippogryph is a steed born of a mare and a griffin; is extremely fast and is presented as being able to fly around the world and to the Moon.  It is ridden by magicians and the wandering knight Ruggiero (Roger), who, from the creature’s back, frees the beautiful Angelica (Angelique).

Sometimes depicted on coats of arms, the hippogryph became a subject of visual art in the 19th century, when it was often drawn by Gustave Doré.

An example of a winged horse creature flanked by two gryphons, can be seen on the canal side of the Palazzo Morosini.  You need to take a boat along the Rio del Santissimo, to view these amazing sculptures that decorate this side of the building.

Pegasus, the winged horse in Greek mythology, was said to be born from the blood of Medusa; after Perseus beheaded the monster.  Where Pegasus’s hoof struck the ground of Mount Helicon, it caused water to flow forth. This “Horse Spring” (Hippocrene), would become identified with the source of poetic inspiration and its immortality.  Pegasus was subsequently immortalised by Zeus, who turned him into the constellation Pegasus within the northern hemisphere.  Ultimately, the winged horse would become the symbol of the “Primordial Tradition of Alchemy”, its flanks said to be made of gold – a reference to the Philosophers’ Gold; the ultimate aim of the “Great Work of Alchemy”.

On this quiet canal, it symbolises Divine Wisdom, referring to Pegasus’s ability to create, with a mere blow of its hoof; a miraculous spring that can give humans immortality.

The crossing of a gryphon with a horse, represents something which is considered impossible.  The medieval expression,”To mate Griffins with horses”, meant about the same as the modern expression, “When pigs fly”.

As gryphons and horses are considered mortal enemies; the hippogryph, symbolises both love and impossibility.  It also can represent Christ’s dual nature as both human and divine.

In medieval legends, this imaginary beast was often associated with knights in love with a maiden, who was impossible to conquer.  Similarly, it would become the symbol of those engaged in the magical arts, who achieved the apparently impossible, by submitting the material to the laws of the spiritual.

Description of the hippogryph by Ludovico Ariosto in his “Orlando Furioso”, at the beginning of the 16th century:

XVIII
no fiction wrought magic lore,
But natural was the steed the wizard pressed;
For him a filly to griffin bore;
Hight hippogryph. In wings and beak and crest,
Formed like his sire, as in the feet before;
But like the mare, his dam, in all the rest.
Such on Riphaean hills, though rarely found,
Are bred, beyond the frozen ocean’s bound.

XIX
Drawn by enchantment from his distant lair,
The wizard thought but how to tame the foal;
And, in a month, instructed him to bear
Saddle and bit, and gallop to the goal;
And execute on earth or in mid air,
All shifts of manege, course and caracole;
He with such labour wrought. This only real,

Where all the rest was hollow and ideal.

The information and images in the above four sections were sourced from Mythical Beasts and Symbolism. A blog post by Images of Venice