when u talk about jewish gryphons (sorry, i've been scrolling back pretty far on ur blog i love reading it), are u referring to the ones depicted in the birds head haggadah or something else? thank u for talking about everything u talk about it is so appreciated <3
I'm going to answer briefly and without sources or images, which is going to KILL ME inside because all I've been doing lately is looking at primary sources and images on this topic.
But.
The short answer is, there is no strong distinction in the Bronze/Iron age between composite creatures like that. Like. Gryphons, sphinxes of varying shapes, lamassu, the chimera and manticore even, even CENTAURS for crying out loud, all have a shared origin and a shared symbolism. They are divine guardians, so they appear on doors and gates, on thrones, tombs, and in royal/sacred/public places. They almost always appear as sedated lying or standing proudly, not rampant or in an attack pose. Gryphons appear in Anatolian and Mesopotamian architecture and art first, but they're also common as royal and divine guardians in Mycenean and Minoan art, and later Grecian and Phonecian.
Cherub is the Hebrew word for these composite temple guardians - it doesn't seem to matter the exact combination or permutation of all the animal parts.
So, YES, birds head haggadah, but also, gyphons are the close cousin of Cherubim and indeed you could say fairly that they represent a type of cherub. This is why you also see them a LOT in pairs, as guardians, on places like Torah breastplates, chanukiyot, etc. Thats what they do, and what they've always done - guard sacred spaces and things.
You could also argue (and I do) that the Ziz of Jewish mythology and religious literature should be/is depicted as a gryphon, part bird and part lion. This shows a parallel to other massive archetypal birds in the NE, who also take attributes of the lion as part of their form: the roc, the simurg, and the anzu.
So yeah. Jewish gryphons. Coming to you live from the Bronze Age.
Also. The Greek word is Gryp. Compare to Hebrew K'ruv.
(For those who don't know, p/b are similar enough to be confused, and the letter V in Hebrew is also a B. The letter G originally didn't exist and was a C, which makes the same sound as K or hard G. So like. These two words are closer than they may appear.)
