A while back I was down in the SD traveling and getting my happy zen on by visiting dead things at museums, mostly dinosaurs. I saw a Folkmanis Griffin in a museum gift shop. I passed on buying it, thinking..."gosh, I will get it laters..." Well apparently, the Griffin had been discontinued...sucky. Folkmanis customer service rocks, not only did they do a search for me, they found one, and had it delivered to my door! Now my office is inhabited by a Woolly Mammoth, Raven, and a Griffin.
I doubt the Griffin will stay in my office for long. Nick loves to play ball with it. After 30 minutes of playing catch with the Griffin, my arm was about to detach from my body. On the amusement side, Dr. Bunny is terrified of her new housemate and went to hide in the fireplace.
If you don't know what a Griffin is: griffin, griffon, or gryphon (Greek: γρύφων, grýphōn, or γρύπων, grýpōn, early form γρύψ, grýps; Latin: gryphus) is a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle.
What makes me happy is that the beast has a history in Ancient Persia: The earliest depiction of griffins are the 15th century BC frescoes in the Throne Room of the Bronze Age Palace of Knossos, as restored by Sir Arthur Evans. It continued being a favored decorative theme in Archaic and Classical Greek art. In Central Asia the griffin appears about a thousand years after Bronze Age Crete, in the 5th-4th centuries BC, probably originating from the Achaemenid Persian Empire.
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