As when a Gryphon through the wilderness
With wingèd course, o’er hill and moory dale,
Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth
Had from his wakeful custody purloined
The guarded gold.
Milton (Paradise Lost).
The Griffin, with head and wings of a bird and body of a lion, is pursuing, “half on foot, half flying,” the one-eyed Arimaspian, who is fleeing on horseback with the purloined gold. The Griffins guarded mines of gold and hidden treasure. (Herodotus, iv, 27.)
A WOMAN’S THOUGHT