Isaac Asimov's Worlds of Fantasy. Book 6: Mythical Beasties

Griffin

"Griffin" can also be spelled "griffon" or, more correctly. though this spelling is not often used, "gryphon."

The word is from the Greek gryps, meaning "having a hooked nose," for reasons that will soon be plain.

The griffin is a composite creature, like the centaur, and such composites are common in mythology, in early periods of history, it was common to deify the animals on which a hunting society lives. Perhaps, as people grow more sophisticated, they become embarrassed at having their gods in the form of animals, and they compromise by making those gods human, but with animal heads. Thus the Egyptians had human gods with the head of a hawk, or an ibis: the Indians had human gods with the head of a monkey or an elephant, and so on.

One could also make a composite of a monster, so that one could combine the characteristics of several dangerous creatures into one. The most familiar such composite is the chimera, from a Greek word for "goat." since it had the body of a goat. However, it had the head of a lion and its tail was a serpent. (Sometimes it was pictured as a creature with three heads, one of a lion, one of a goat, and one of a serpent). It was slain by the Greek hero Bellerophon.

Nowadays, plants and animals made up of mixtures of material from different species, through human manipulation, are called chimeras.

The griffin has the body of a lion, but the head and wings of an eagle, and, sometimes, a serpent tail. It is a kind of dragon in its functioning, and may be viewed as breathing fire. It is usually pictured as guarding treasures, as dragons are commonly represented as doing, and, in modern limes, it is frequently represented in grotesque carvings as in the story you are about to read.

It is the curved beak of an eagle, by the way, that is the "hooked nose" that gives it its name.