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 Since the earliest years of Reed, the griffin,
or “griffon” (if you happen to be reading this in, you know, the 1700s), has
been the central image in the Reed College seal.
A wingless bird with hairy feathers, the griffin—no, wait, that’s an apteryx.
Sorry...a griffin is a mythological creature with the body of a lion and the wings, head,
and talons of an eagle, thus combining the swiftness and strengths of the noblest beasts
of the air and the land.
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Symbolizing a protector, the griffin was linked in mythology with Artemis and with
the sun god Apollo, whose golden chariot was pulled by a griffin. By thus hauling the
light around, as it were, the creature also eventually came to be regarded as an enemy
of ignorance.
It was in this guise that the griffin appeared on the coat-of-arms of
Englishman Simeon Reed, who, with his wife Amanda, was the first benefactor of the
college. And in 1914
when the school’s seal was being designed, the griffin was the perfect choice
to symbolize an institution that has always been an enemy of ignorance and a protector
of
the knowledge and intellectual freedom that are the treasures of lifelong learning.
Read about the Richmond Rose, Reed College's official color. |
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