Griffins
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40 free Griffins trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The griffin has the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle, which made it the king of beasts and the king of birds in a single animal. People have been drawing it for more than five thousand years, and it still turns up on shields, statues, car badges and team jerseys. These fun facts about griffins are set as multiple-choice questions. They cover what ancient writers said the creature guarded, the strange relics that medieval collectors passed off as griffin parts, the special vocabulary heralds use for it, and the novels, films, mascots and logos that keep it in view today. The quiz suits mythology fans, fantasy readers and anyone who likes a good guessing game. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you pick up the story behind each fact as you play.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Greek and Roman lore, griffins were famous for fiercely guarding deposits of which metal in Central Asia?
Gold
Gold in the far mountains was said to be watched by griffins, which chased down any thief who came near. The tale turned the griffin into a lasting emblem of guarded treasure.
Q 02Which winged creature of legend, born of a mare, do knights ride in the poem Orlando Furioso?
Hippogriff
The Hippogriff has a griffin for a father, and it first took flight in the Italian poet Ariosto's early 1500s epic. Harry Potter readers know one by the name Buckbeak.
Q 03Often mistaken for griffins, the statues that guard the City of London's boundaries are actually which creatures?
Dragons
Dragons hold up the shield in the City of London's coat of arms, so cast-iron ones stand at its edges. Their bat-like wings give them away, because a griffin's wings are feathered.
Q 04Medieval treasuries proudly displayed 'griffin eggs' that were often really the eggs of which bird?
Ostrich
Ostrich eggs were rare and exotic enough in medieval Europe to pass as relics of a mythical beast. In a few cases the prized 'egg' turned out to be a fossilised dinosaur egg.
Q 05In the Harry Potter series, which Hogwarts wizard has a knocker shaped like a griffin on his door?
Albus Dumbledore
Albus Dumbledore's knocker is not the saga's only nod to the creature. The surname of the Hogwarts founder Godric Gryffindor plays on the French phrase griffon d'or.
Q 06In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the Queen orders the Gryphon to take Alice to meet which sorrowful character?
The Mock Turtle
The Mock Turtle tells Alice about his school days in the sea between sobs, while the Gryphon insists that all the sorrow has no basis in fact.
Q 07Medieval legend says which ancient ruler soared skyward on two harnessed griffins, luring them upward with meat?
Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great, the story goes, sat between the two beasts and held skewers of meat above their heads so they kept climbing. He was also said to have explored the seabed in a diving bell.
Q 08Which European car brand had to give up its famous griffin badge after new owners took over in 2012?
Saab
Saab had shared its griffin with the truck maker Scania, which feared the emblem could end up in the wrong hands and barred the car brand's new owners from using it.
Q 09In medieval Christian thought, the griffin, a creature of both earth and sky, became a symbol of which figure?
Jesus
Jesus was held to be both human and divine, so a beast that joined a bird of the air to an animal of the ground made a natural emblem. Griffins can be found carved on a number of churches.
Q 10The Greek playwright Aeschylus described griffins as the silent, sharp-beaked hounds of which Greek god?
Zeus
Zeus is named as their master in the tragedy Prometheus Bound, and the dog comparison has led scholars to suspect that Aeschylus pictured griffins without wings.
Q 11The seventh-century scholar Isidore of Seville wrote that griffins were the fierce enemies of which animals?
Horses
Horses were the griffin's sworn foes in medieval lore, a grudge that may go back to older tales of mounted raiders robbing the griffins' hoards.
Q 12Which Greek god was believed to leave Delphi each winter and ride a griffin north to the land of Hyperborea?
Apollo
Apollo appears astride a griffin on Greek red-figure pottery, and a later Latin poet has him hitch a team of griffins to his chariot instead.
Q 13Which British car maker traces its griffin logo to the arms of a thirteenth-century mercenary soldier?
Vauxhall
Vauxhall owes its name to the same man: Falkes de Breauté, who served King John and whose London home, Falkes' Hall, gave the district its name.
Q 21Supposed griffin claws were prized in medieval Europe and were frequently fashioned into which objects?
Drinking cups
Drinking cups made from a 'griffin claw' were treasured across medieval Europe. One linked to Charlemagne survives in Paris, and it was really carved from the horn of an ox.
Q 22In European folklore, including an Italian folktale, a griffin's feather was believed to cure which affliction?
Blindness
Blindness is cured by the feather in an Italian tale in which the bones of its murdered finder sing out what happened. Surviving 'griffin feathers' are forgeries made of painted palm fibre.
Q 23The two-foot 'griffin claws' recorded at Saint Cuthbert's shrine in 1383 turned out to be the horns of which animal?
Alpine ibex
Q 14Which huge South American bird has the scientific name Vultur gryphus, Latin for griffin-vulture?
Andean condor
The Andean condor earns the lofty name with a wingspan of up to 3.3 metres, which makes it one of the largest flying birds in the world.
Q 15One of the oldest griffin-like figures, carved before 3000 BC, appears on a slate cosmetic palette from which land?
Egypt
Egypt's Two Dog Palette, found at Hierakonpolis, carries a beaked creature on four legs. Later Egyptians gave the griffin descriptive nicknames such as Tearer and the fiery one.
Q 16Which Italian poet has a griffin pull a triumphal chariot through a garden at the summit of Mount Purgatory?
Dante
Dante meets the griffin's chariot at the end of his long climb, and it carries Beatrice, the beloved woman who then leads him onward into Heaven.
Q 17Unlike a real eagle, the head of a griffin is traditionally drawn with which prominent feature?
Ears
Ears stand upright on almost every griffin, often elongated and sometimes feathered. The Roman writer Pliny the Elder was the first to say plainly that griffins had them.
Q 18Restored frescoes of griffins flank a stone throne in which Bronze Age palace on the island of Crete?
Knossos
Knossos was dug by Sir Arthur Evans, who took the griffins beside the alabaster seat as proof that the ruler who sat there stood somehow beyond the mortal realm.
Q 19Which Swedish fighter jet, in service since the 1990s, has a name that means griffin?
Gripen
Gripen was the winning entry in a public naming competition, and the griffin is also the heraldic beast on the logo of the jet's maker.
Q 20One theory says griffin legends were shaped by Central Asian fossils of which beaked, frilled dinosaur?
Protoceratops
Protoceratops was put forward by the folklorist Adrienne Mayor, who argued that nomads saw its beaked, four-legged skeletons. Paleontologist Mark Witton disputes the idea, as griffin art is far older.
Alpine ibex horns were identified in the claws that survive from the saint's treasures. The same 1383 inventory of his shrine also counted two griffin eggs among the relics.
Q 24Which epic poem by John Milton compares Satan's journey to a griffin chasing a thief across the wilderness?
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost pictures the creature racing over hill and marshy dale after the man who stole from its hoard, a nod to tales told since ancient Greece.
Q 25A bronze griffin, the largest medieval Islamic metal sculpture known, long stood atop which Italian city's cathedral?
Pisa
Pisa set the statue on a column above its cathedral, where it stayed until 1828. Carbon dating shows it was cast between 1085 and 1110, most likely in Islamic Spain.
Q 26Which Italian maritime republic showed griffins rearing beside the Cross of St George on its coat of arms?
Genoa
Genoa took up the griffins as it rose to become a major seafaring power in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, placing one on each side of its shield.
Q 27A red griffin on a white shield is the historic coat of arms of which duchy on the Baltic Sea coast?
Pomerania
Pomerania was ruled for centuries by a dynasty known as the House of Griffin, and the red beast survives in the arms of a Polish province and a German state.
Q 28Which Virginia college chose a griffin mascot in 2010 as a blend of the British lion and the American eagle?
William & Mary
William & Mary picked the griffin over finalists that included a pug and a phoenix, and the choice drew a joke from the comedian Jon Stewart, a graduate of the college.
Q 29Which Michigan city has been home since 1996 to the Griffins, a professional ice hockey team?
Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids picked the name through a public contest in 1995, after the owners said they wanted something with a face and a personality that could become a mascot.
Q 30Griffon, a dive coaster that opened in 2007 with a 205-foot climb, thrills riders at which American theme park?
Busch Gardens Williamsburg
Busch Gardens Williamsburg opened the ride as the tallest and fastest dive coaster in the world, and as the first of its kind to run floorless trains.