Or, how a Griffin became an Ass

(after the manner of Ovid’s Metamorphoses)

NOTE: The Griffin, or Gryphon, is according to Smith’s Classical Dictionary „a fabulous animal, with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle, dwelling in the Rhipaean mountains, between the Hyperboreans and the one-eyed Arimaspians, and guarding the gold of the North. The Arimaspians mounted on horseback, and attempted to steal the gold, and hence arose the hostility between the horse and the Griffin. The belief in Griffins came from the East, where they are mentioned among the fabulous animals which guarded the gold of India.”

Milton, in the second book of Paradise Lost, thus refers to the Griffin:

As when a Griffin through the wilderness,

With winged course, o’er hill and moory dale

Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth

Hath from his wakeful custody purloin’d

His guarded gold.

We shall now see how this noble beast sunk to the Blarney, or North Carolinian species.

The frightful Griffins (so the legends tell)

Amid the far Rhipaean mountains dwell.

Perch’d on the peaks, eternal watch the hold,

And guard their hoards of Hyperborean gold.

In vain the one-eyed Arimaspian tries

With mounted might to seize the glitt’ring prize:

For Griffins’ forms are made from monstrous things,

The lion’s trunk; the eagle’s head and wings:

What thief with hopes of vict’ry can oppose

In greedy conflict such ferocious foes?

Yet one there was who tho’ of rugged race

Aspir’d to hold a softer, sweeter place.

With liquid glance the silly creature eyed

The lissome nymphs that rang’d the mountainside.

No thought of strength nor martial deeds he took,

And never strove but for a melting look.

His brothers fought, whilst he would lounge at ease

Amidst a group of sweet Oreades;

He train’d his cruel claws to pick the lyre,

And burnt with Eros’, not with Ares’ fire.

In his fair speech such smooth persuasion lay

That ev’ry doubt and fear he drove away.

Th’ enchanted nymphs his hideous mien ignor’d,

And, mad with love, for one kind word implor’d.

‘Twas on a cloudless day, that o’er the plain

Rov’d great Diana with her virgin train.

The arrows flew, the silver bow was bent;

And each fair nymph was on the sport intent.

Northward the pack pursu’d the fleeing deer;

The sounds of hunting reach’d the Griffin’s ear:

Down on the plain he saw the eager chase

And mark’d the beauty of the goddess’ face.

Long did he look, and with the looking came

A sudden thought he scarcely dar’d to name.

Why could not he, of ev’ry maid the pet,

Enmesh Diana’s self in Cupid’s net?

Not even she who loath’d the thought of love

Could long unkind to such a lover prove!

His warlike kin, who scorn’d his am’rous life,

Would scorn no more, once Dian were his wife!

With these wild dreams, and eager for the fair,

On his broad wings he rose into the air.

Round and above the huntress-queen he flew,

And with each look his foolish passion grew.

Now does he sink to seize the prey divine,

His eagle eyes with greedy lustre shine;

But as he nears, by some auspicious chance,

The goddess spies him in an upward glance.

The leering look his foul intent reveals,

And the chaste maid Olympian anger feels.

As once Actaeon suffer’d from her hate,

So now the Griffin meets his proper fate;

For as she glares, his shape begins to fade,

And strange new features are in him display’d.

The eagle’s gleam hath vanish’d from his eyes,

And on his head two monstrous ears arise.

To shaggy grey is chang’d his tawny hide,

With hoofs for claws upon his feet supply’d.

The flapping wings from off his shoulders pass,

And down he falls, transmuted to an ass.