The Guardian:
The GRYPHON is a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. As the lion was traditionally considered the king of the beasts and the eagle was the king of the birds, the Gryphon was thought to be an especially powerful and majestic creature. Gryphons are known for guarding treasure and priceless possessions.
In antiquity it was a symbol of divine power and a guardian of the divine.
The earliest depiction of Gryphons are the 15th century BC frescoes in the Throne Room of the Bronze Age Palace of Knossos, as restored by Sir Arthur Evans. It continued being a favored decorative theme in Archaic and Classical Greek art.
In Central Asia the Gryphon appears about a thousand years after Bronze Age Crete, in the 5th-4th century BC, probably originating from the Achaemenid Persian Empire.
The Achaemenids considered the Gryphon "a protector from evil, witchcraft and secret slander"