Monday, September 15, 2014

A Hippogriff

A hippogriff is a legendary animal that has the foreparts of a winged griffin and the body and hindquarters of a horse. His “inventor” was Ludovico Ariosto in his “Orlando furioso”. Within the poem, the hippogriff is extremely fast, can fly around the world and also to the moon: riding this creature the wandering knight Roger is able to free the beautiful Angelica.
Hippogriff on a gate, via Roma, Livorno
Our hippogriff is one of a pair decorating an old gate in Via Roma.

External links: Hippogriff - Orlando Furioso (Wikipedia)

10 comments:

Revrunner said...

Funny how these imaginary creatures have come down into our cultures.

William Kendall said...

Remarkable details in this case!

Jack said...

The ancients had good imaginations, didn't they?

Randy said...

Nice close up and post.

Dina said...

I'd love to have a hippogriff on my gate.
There is but ONE house in my town that has a mythological creature on their fence and I always slow my gait when I walk by to enjoy it anew.

Cezar and Léia said...

This hippogriff is adorable! Thanks for the information, I'm always learning interesting things with blog friends!So cool!
Hugs
Léia

Halcyon said...

A very nice detail.

Luis Gomez said...

Thank you VP. Very nice.

Karl said...

It's a beautiful decoration.

Lois said...

Fascinating! I have never heard of this legendary creature before.