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XVIII

No empty fiction wrought by magic lore,

But natural was the steed the wizard pressed;

For him a filly to griffin bore;

Hight hippogryph. In wings and beak and crest,

Formed like his sire, as in the feet before;

But like the mare, his dam, in all the rest.

Such on Riphaean hills, though rarely found,

Are bred, beyond the frozen ocean's bound.

XIX

Drawn by enchantment from his distant lair,

The wizard thought but how to tame the foal;

And, in a month, instructed him to bear

Saddle and bit, and gallop to the goal;

And execute on earth or in mid air,

All shifts of manege, course and caracole;

He with such labour wrought. This only real,

Where all the rest was hollow and ideal.

The reason for its great rarity is that griffins despise horses, which they regard with the same feelings a dog has about a cat. In medieval times there was an expression, "To mate griffins with horses", which meant about the same as the modern expression, "When pigs fly". The hippogriff was therefore a symbol of impossibility and love. This was supposedly inspired by Virgil's Ecologues: ... mate Gryphons with mares, and in the coming age shy deer and hounds together come to drink.., which would also be the source for the reputed medieval expression, if indeed it was one.

Among the animal combat themes in Scythian gold adornments may be found griffins attacking horses.

The hippogriff seemed easier to tame than a griffin. In the few medieval legends when this fantastic creature makes an appearance, it is usually the pet of either a knight or a sorcerer. It makes an excellent steed, being able to fly as fast as lightning. One appears in the legends of Orlando Furioso.

The hippogriff is said to be an omnivore, eating either plants or meat. The only creature known to hunt hippogriffs is the griffin, its own parent species.

Hippogriffs in art

One or more hippogriffs feature in:

• many role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons
• the third, fourth and fifth books of the Harry Potter series
• the Castlevania "Circle of the Moon" game for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance
• various books of Piers Anthony's XanthXanth is a fantasy world created by author Piers Anthony, the setting of his eponymous series of novels; for which he has become popular. The series is noted for its punny and somewhat humorous style. The author's habit of using (and crediting) reader not series, most notably Xap Hippogriff
• the PC game Warcraft IIIWarcraft III: Reign of Chaos released by Blizzard Entertainment in 2002, is a real-time strategy computer game and the second sequel to Warcraft''. It is the third game set in the Warcraft Universe. Overview Warcraft III features an innovation over the pr, as the flying combat unit of the Night ElvesNight elves are a fictional race of elves in the Blizzard WarCraft series of computer games. The have a deep purple skin, long ears, and hair ranging in blue to purple colors. The men are always of reasonably slim yet well muscled build, and the women are