Griffins were consecrated to the Sun and ancient painters represented the chariot of the Sun as drawn by griffins. The animal was supposed to watch over gold mines and hidden treasures, and to be the enemy of the horse. The griffin was said to build a nest, like an eagle. Tales of griffins and the Arimaspi of distant Scythia near the cave of Boreas, the North Wind (Geskleithron), were elaborated in the lost archaic poem of Aristeas of Proconnesus, Arimaspea, and eagerly reported by Herodotus and in Pliny's Natural History. Griffins were also sometimes seen as pulling the chariot of the pharaohs. Several figures in Egyptian mythology were depicted as griffins, including Sefer, Sefert, and Axex. During the New Kingdom, depictions of griffins included hunting scenes. Early statuary depicts them with wings that are horizontal and parallel along the back of the body. In Ancient Egypt, griffins were depicted with a slender, feline body and the head of a falcon. Homa also had a special place in Persian literature as guardians of light. In Persian mythology, in particular during the Achaemenid Empire, griffins or Homa were used widely as statues and symbols in palaces. The earliest references to griffins come out of ancient Persia. While it is possible that ancient cultures devised griffin legends from the fossils of actual animals, it is more likely that the griffins were creations of myth and symbolism. Classical folklorist Adrienne Mayor draws upon similarities between the skulls of Protoceratops living millions of years ago in the steppes leading to the Gobi Desert, and the legends of the gold-hoarding griffin told by nomadic Scythians of the region. One suggested set of associations extends from the rich fossil beds around the Mediterranean across the steppes to the Gobi Desert and on to the myths of griffins, centaurs, and archaic giants originating in the classical world. Among the few variations are those traditions claiming that only the females had wings and others indicating that the griffin's tails are serpent-like. They are generally depicted with four legs, two wings, and a beak, with eagle-like talons in place of a lion's forelegs and feathered, and equine-like ears jutting from the skull. Griffins have had a rather consistent physiology throughout the ages.
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