Overseas mythionary

If Mythical Creatures Existed No. 3: Gryphons

For those who don't know, Gryphons (or Griffins or Griffons) have the body of a lion with the wings and head of an eagle. They have been associated with royalty for a long time, and are used on many royal and aristocratic famly crests. I see the existence of Gryphons as having a lot of benefits for human civilisation, with one big downside.

The benefits:
- First of all, very practical: their feathers can cure blindness. I can see a lot of eye doctors and optometrists being put out of business with this. HOWEVER. There is one problem before I get into this.

The Big Problem:
- Gryphons love gold. Like LOVE it. Now, in today's worldwide capitalist economy, this would drive the price of gold through the roof. Why? Because the Gryphons aren't dumb. They're going to charge for their blindness cure. The price? Gold. You want to see again? Sure. Just need to fill out this form, take a test... and give me your ring and watch. As a new player in the gold market, with a very valuable service to provide, the Gryphons know they've got a chance to hoard a stack of that yellow stuff.

Back to the benefits:
- Apart from curing blindness, Gryphons were known for their wisdom and fidelity. They mated for life, and if their mate died they lived alone until they died. Their wisdom would come in very handy as advisors, and I can see a lot of them moving into the stock market. To obtain gold. Or buy horses. Oh yeah, I forgot about the horses.

Another problem:
- They hate horses. Really hate them. So the chances of Gryphons buying up as many horses as possible and then killing them all is a possibility. The only thing that could stop this is if their love of gold is stronger than their hatred of horses, and they decide against buying them all up. That might not stop a few midnight stable aids, however.

Anyway, Gryphons are useful for other things too
- They could be employed as airline guards, to fly with planes and make sure they reach their destination safely. Two of them with each plane and they could grab on and slow its descent if something went wrong.
- They'd also be really useful for search-and-rescue operations, with their eagle eyes (no pun intended... they actually have eagle eyes) and their strength and agility.
- Private bodyguards. No one's going to start something crazy on your ass if you're rolling 12-deep, Gryphon style.
- Soldiers. Put some armour on them, maybe a sniper on their back, a radar system and maybe some rockets to help them fly and they'll be the biz on the battlefield.
- Poison detectors. A goblet made of a Gryphon claw would change colours if it had poison in it. However the only way you could obtain a Gryphon claw was if a holy man had healed a sick one, and he had been given the claw as a gift of thanks. So we're going to need a lot of sick Gryphons and a lot of good holy men before we can mass produce those things.

Ways we can help them
- Well, thebig one is obviously gold. We mine it on a daily basis, it's freely available on the open market and sellers are happy to sell to anyone with cash.
- The war with the Amazons. We're pretty certain that the Amazons, the tribe of warrior women, have been wiped out. However if the Gryphons think they're still out there then we can certainly go looking with them. I do think that the Gryphons may have an issue with the rise of feminism and women's rights, so we'll have to open them up to some mediation on that.

Cultural impact:
- Gryphons are a romantic creature. I believe their existence would inspire an increase in the amount of romantic novels and films, especially centred around a Gryphon's devotion to their mate. That kind story, where a young handsome Gryphon lives out the rest of his life in solitude, grieving over his beautiful dead wife, appeals like MAD to women. They love that stuff. It's their catnip. They go crazy for it. So I think we'd see a rise in those sorts of stories.
- It might also lead to a new cultural expectation on human men and women to stay devoted to their partners even after death. Or possibly, even after marriage (crazy to think these days but stranger things have happened).

In closing, I say bring on the Gryphons. Sure they love our gold and hate our horses, but they're awesome!

I had to do some research for this. Although I do remember Gryphons in Heroes of Might and Magic (computer game) being pretty useful in battle.