The creature with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion is the Griffin.
Also spelled griffon or gryphon, the Griffin combines the traditional “king of the birds,” the eagle, with the “king of the beasts,” the lion. Its usual form has an eagle’s head, wings, and foreclaws, joined to a lion’s body, tail, and hind legs. Ancient and medieval stories often cast it as a guardian of treasure or other precious possessions.
Greek and Roman writers connected Griffins with gold deposits in Central Asia and with the Arimaspians, a legendary one-eyed people said to steal that gold. The creature’s imagery, however, has much older parallels in the art of the ancient Near East, including winged lion-like beings and eagle-headed monsters.
The Griffin is often mixed up with the Sphinx and the Hippogriff. A Greek Sphinx has a human head, lion’s body, and bird wings; a Hippogriff combines an eagle-like front half with a horse’s rear. Griffin imagery also spread into Roman architecture, medieval manuscripts, heraldry, and later fantasy.