# Hippogriff
The hippogriff (also spelled hippogryph; Italian *ippogrifo*) is a legendary creature with the head, wings, and foreparts of a griffin and the hindquarters of a horse, first described by the [Italian Renaissance](https://www.edgepedia.org/italian-renaissance) poet [Ludovico Ariosto](https://www.edgepedia.org/ludovico-ariosto) in his epic *Orlando Furioso* (1516).[1](https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/hippogriff) • [2](https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/a-hippogriff-in-orlando-furiosodi-m-lodovico-ariosto/dQGK1LwMKOpK9w?hl=en) Because the griffin itself already combines eagle and lion, the hippogriff is a hybrid of a hybrid, mixing the griffin with a third animal.[3](https://griffinworld.com.au/hippogriffs/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Form | Griffin's head, wings, and front claws with the hindquarters, ears, and mane of a horse[3](https://griffinworld.com.au/hippogriffs/) |
| First appearance | Ariosto's *Orlando Furioso*, canto IV (1516), as the offspring of a griffin father and a mare mother[2](https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/a-hippogriff-in-orlando-furiosodi-m-lodovico-ariosto/dQGK1LwMKOpK9w?hl=en) • [4](https://worldofcreatures.org/creatures/hippogriff/) |
| Etymology | Via French *hippogriffe*, from Italian *ippogrifo*: Greek *hippos* (horse) plus Italian *grifo* (griffin)[5](https://www.etymonline.com/word/hippogriff) |
| Home in the poem | The Riphaean hills, where hippogriffs are found but rarely[4](https://worldofcreatures.org/creatures/hippogriff/) |
| Famous riders | The magician Atlantes trains it; Rogero rides it to rescue Angelica, and Astolfo flies it to the Moon in canto 34[4](https://worldofcreatures.org/creatures/hippogriff/) • [6](https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/blog/ariosto-harry-potter-and-hippogriffs-weaving-textual-webs/) |
| Symbolism | A symbol of love, because its parents, the griffin and the mare, were traditionally enemies[7](https://words.fromoldbooks.org/Brewer-DictionaryOfPhraseAndFable/h/hippogriff.html) |
| Modern reach | Listed among the monsters of the original Dungeons & Dragons (1974) and made widely familiar by Buckbeak in Harry Potter[8](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/orlando-furioso/) |
## Ariosto's invention
Ariosto introduces the hippogriff in canto IV of *Orlando Furioso*, insisting that the winged steed is no enchantment but a natural animal: "non è finto il destrier, ma naturale," begotten by a griffin upon a mare. It has its father's plumage, wings, forefeet, head, and beak, and in all else takes after its mother.[4](https://worldofcreatures.org/creatures/hippogriff/) • [9](https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/qua/article/download/11109/8013/20645) The creature is found rarely in the Riphaean hills, a mythological mountain range usually identified with the Urals.[4](https://worldofcreatures.org/creatures/hippogriff/) • [6](https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/blog/ariosto-harry-potter-and-hippogriffs-weaving-textual-webs/)
The hippogriff serves the poem's plot as a flying mount of extraordinary speed, able to fly around the world.[10](https://areq.net.storage.googleapis.com/lang/fr/Hippogriffe.html) The magician Atlantes trains it, and the Saracen knight Rogero (Ruggiero) rides it to rescue the princess Angelica, who has been chained to a rock as prey for a sea monster.[4](https://worldofcreatures.org/creatures/hippogriff/) • [11](https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/collections/objects/7971) Later, the English knight Astolfo rides it to the Earthly Paradise and then travels by Elijah's chariot to the Moon, where everything lost on Earth is kept.[8](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/orlando-furioso/)
**Why a griffin and a mare.** Medieval tradition held that griffins were the deadly enemies of horses; the fourth-century commentator Servius records that griffins, half eagle and half lion, dwell in the Hyperborean mountains and are "vehemently hostile" to horses.[10](https://areq.net.storage.googleapis.com/lang/fr/Hippogriffe.html) A mating of the two was therefore a proverbial impossibility, and the offspring became a symbol of love strong enough to bridge natural opposition.[7](https://words.fromoldbooks.org/Brewer-DictionaryOfPhraseAndFable/h/hippogriff.html) Scholars have also connected the creature to Virgil, who in one of his pastoral poems unites horse and griffin, animals others had called enemies, to depict a paradisal state.[12](https://lex.dk/hippogrif) The dominant scholarly position, shared by the historian of equestrian beliefs Marc-André Wagner and cited by [Jorge Luis Borges](https://www.edgepedia.org/jorge-luis-borges), is that Ariosto invented the hippogriff outright; Borges calls it a monster or imagination "to the second degree," since its griffin parent is already a hybrid.[10](https://areq.net.storage.googleapis.com/lang/fr/Hippogriffe.html)
An alternative reading comes from a study of cartographic sources: the Genoese planisphere of 1457, one of the maps Ariosto is argued to have used for his poem's geography, shows a creature in today's Russia whose rear part is a horse rather than a lion's, that is, a hippogriff rather than a griffin. An Asian hippogriff also appears in the Atlas Miller of 1519.[13](https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/7013/1/Aloe16PhD_Redacted.pdf)
## Ancient echoes and the name
No ancient myth names the hippogriff, but two classical precedents are usually noted. A similar word, "Hippogypians" (Ἱππόγυποι), appears in the Greek satirist Lucian of Samosata's *True History* (2nd century AD), where men ride large vultures as horses; their appearance on the Moon in chapter 11 makes the connection to Ariosto especially suggestive, since Astolfo's hippogriff also carries him to the Moon.[6](https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/blog/ariosto-harry-potter-and-hippogriffs-weaving-textual-webs/) The word itself is straightforwardly compounded: English adopted it in the 1650s (earlier as *hippogryph*) from French *hippogriffe*, from Italian *ippogrifo*, joining Greek *hippos*, "horse," to Italian *grifo*, "griffin," from [Late Latin](https://www.edgepedia.org/late-latin) *gryphus*.[5](https://www.etymonline.com/word/hippogriff) [Noah Webster](https://www.edgepedia.org/noah-webster)'s 1828 dictionary still defined it as "a fabulous animal or monster, half horse and half griffon; a winged horse, imagined by Ariosto."[14](https://www.1828.mshaffer.com/d/word/hippogriff)
## Later literature and art
The success of *Orlando Furioso* carried the hippogriff into other chivalric tales, and the word entered English shortly before 1615.[10](https://areq.net.storage.googleapis.com/lang/fr/Hippogriffe.html) Milton names it in *Paradise Regained* ("Of hippogrif, bore through the air sublime"), and [Lewis Carroll](https://www.edgepedia.org/lewis-carroll)'s *Alice's Adventures in Wonderland* (1865) stages a Gryphon and a Mock Turtle whose name plays on "hippogriff" in Danish tradition.[7](https://words.fromoldbooks.org/Brewer-DictionaryOfPhraseAndFable/h/hippogriff.html) • [12](https://lex.dk/hippogrif) Later poets, including [Henrik Ibsen](https://www.edgepedia.org/henrik-ibsen), used the name loosely to mean simply a [winged horse](https://www.edgepedia.org/winged-horse), in the manner of Pegasus.[15](https://snl.no/hippogriff)
The creature became a favorite of artists. [Giovanni Battista Tiepolo](https://www.edgepedia.org/giovanni-battista-tiepolo) depicted Ruggero mounted on a hippogriff in frescoes at the Villa Valmarana near Vicenza (ca. 1757), [Jean-Honoré Fragonard](https://www.edgepedia.org/jean-honore-fragonard) drew Ruggiero mastering the beast under Logistilla's guidance among his many *Orlando Furioso* illustrations, [Gustave Doré](https://www.edgepedia.org/gustave-dore) illustrated the poem in 1879, and Antoine-Louis Barye modeled the bronze *Roger and Angelica Mounted on the Hippogriff* (ca. 1840, first cast 1846).[11](https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/collections/objects/7971) • [16](https://www.themorgan.org/drawings/item/214254) • [8](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/orlando-furioso/) • [17](https://art.thewalters.org/object/27.173/) In heraldry the hippogriff is rare in British arms but appears in Continental examples, including the mid-16th-century arms of Greiff.[18](https://mistholme.com/dictionary/hippogriff/)
## Modern fantasy
The hippogriff entered gaming with the original [Dungeons & Dragons](https://www.edgepedia.org/dungeons-and-dragons) (1974), which lists it among its monsters; early editions describe it as a fierce fighter attacking with hooves and beak, similar in nature to the pegasus though the two do not herd together and normally fight each other.[8](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/orlando-furioso/) • [19](https://www.americanroads.us/DandD/ODnD_Monsters_and_Treasure.pdf) In the [Harry Potter](https://www.edgepedia.org/harry-potter) series, beginning with *The Prisoner of Azkaban* (1999), Buckbeak made the creature widely familiar; Rowling's hippogriffs have an eagle's head and a horse's body, matching Thomas Bulfinch's description in *Legends of Charlemagne* (1863) rather than Ariosto's griffin-headed original, and fans generally trace her version through Bulfinch.[6](https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/blog/ariosto-harry-potter-and-hippogriffs-weaving-textual-webs/) The wizarding-world treatment keeps the old lore's core trait: a proud creature that must be approached with a respectful bow and grants its trust rather than submitting.[20](https://whatisyourspiritanimal.com/fantasy-mythical-creatures/hippogriff-symbolism-meaning/)
## Hippogriff, griffin, and Pegasus
The hippogriff is often confused with Pegasus, the winged divine stallion of [Greek mythology](https://www.edgepedia.org/greek-mythology), and with its own griffin parent. The distinctions are consistent across sources. While Pegasus is basically just a winged horse, the hippogriff combines its horse-like traits with the head, beak, and talons of an eagle. Pegasus belongs to ancient Greek myth, while the hippogriff became famous through Renaissance literature many centuries later.[3](https://griffinworld.com.au/hippogriffs/) Compared with the griffin, which has a lion's body and hindquarters, the hippogriff replaces the lion entirely with the horse.[3](https://griffinworld.com.au/hippogriffs/) A 2021 [Scientific American](https://www.edgepedia.org/scientific-american) feature on the biomechanics of mythical flyers described the hippogriff as a part-equine, part-avian predator able to gallop like a horse and then launch into the air like an eagle, reimagining it as a horse-pterosaur blend.[21](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-make-a-hippogriff-fly-and-other-flights-of-fancy/)
## References
1. [Hippogriff definition and meaning, Collins English Dictionary](https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/hippogriff)
2. [A hippogriff, in Orlando Furioso, British Library at Google Arts & Culture](https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/a-hippogriff-in-orlando-furiosodi-m-lodovico-ariosto/dQGK1LwMKOpK9w?hl=en)
3. [Hippogriffs, Griffin World](https://griffinworld.com.au/hippogriffs/)
4. [Hippogriff, World of Creatures (record CRE-042)](https://worldofcreatures.org/creatures/hippogriff/)
5. [Hippogriff, Etymology, Origin & Meaning, Online Etymology Dictionary](https://www.etymonline.com/word/hippogriff)
6. [Stefano Jossa, Ariosto, Harry Potter and Hippogriffs: weaving textual webs, The British Academy (2016)](https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/blog/ariosto-harry-potter-and-hippogriffs-weaving-textual-webs/)
7. [Hippogriff, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1895 revision)](https://words.fromoldbooks.org/Brewer-DictionaryOfPhraseAndFable/h/hippogriff.html)
8. [Orlando Furioso (1516 epic poem), The Lantern Hall](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/orlando-furioso/)
9. [Valerie Merriam Wise, Ruggiero and the Hippogriff: the Ambiguities of Vision, Quaderni d'italianistica (1981)](https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/qua/article/download/11109/8013/20645)
10. [Hippogriffe, AREQ language resource (French)](https://areq.net.storage.googleapis.com/lang/fr/Hippogriffe.html)
11. [Ruggero Mounted on a Hippogriff, Princeton University Art Museum](https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/collections/objects/7971)
12. [Hippogrif, Lex / Den Store Danske (Eske K. Mathiesen)](https://lex.dk/hippogrif)
13. [Stefania Aloe, The New World mythology in Italian epic poetry: 1492-1650, PhD thesis, University of Birmingham](https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/7013/1/Aloe16PhD_Redacted.pdf)
14. [Hippogriff, Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)](https://www.1828.mshaffer.com/d/word/hippogriff)
15. [Hippogriff, Store norske leksikon](https://snl.no/hippogriff)
16. [With Logistilla's Guidance, Ruggiero Masters the Hippogriff, The Morgan Library & Museum](https://www.themorgan.org/drawings/item/214254)
17. [Roger and Angelica Mounted on the Hippogriff, The Walters Art Museum](https://art.thewalters.org/object/27.173/)
18. [Hippogriff, Mistholme Dictionary of Heraldry](https://mistholme.com/dictionary/hippogriff/)
19. [Monsters & Treasure, original Dungeons & Dragons (1974)](https://www.americanroads.us/DandD/ODnD_Monsters_and_Treasure.pdf)
20. [Hippogriff Meaning & Symbolism in Myth & Folklore](https://whatisyourspiritanimal.com/fantasy-mythical-creatures/hippogriff-symbolism-meaning/)
21. [Michael B. Habib & Terryl Whitlatch, How to Make a Hippogriff Fly and Other Flights of Fancy, Scientific American (2021)](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-make-a-hippogriff-fly-and-other-flights-of-fancy/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Philosophy, religion, and mythology › Mythology and folklore › Legendary creatures and beings › Hybrid beasts and monsters*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license