Which "One liners" do you think most beg for an explanation ?

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 131442

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, heather the buzzard 
<tankgirl73 at s...> wrote:

heather:
 
> Well, I was just looking at the house crests again, and was 
reminded 
> that Gryffindor's symbol animal is a lion (representing strength 
and 
> bravery of course).  I would not be at all surprised if old Godric 
was 
> an animagus who turned into a lion.  Of course the 'gryffin' part 
of 
> 'gryffindor' implies something lion-like about him already.  I 
suspect 
> that the 'lion man' who has been described is GG himself.
> 
> Whether or not he's the HBP is, of course, another question.
> 
> But, if he was a large, lion-like fellow, that could explain his 
> larger-than-usual hat.  He had a big mane to fit it over, after all.
> 
> Oh hey, I just thought of something.  Gryffindor and slytherin are 
the 
> Lion and the Serpent -- Lion is often used as a christ-figure 
allegory, 
> and the serpent is of course Lucifer, the betrayer.  They started 
out 
> 'together' but lucifer fell...

Geoff:
The only problem here is that Gryffindor is derived from Griffin d'or 
(golden Griffin) allowing that there are variant spelling of griffin.

According to my dictionary, a griffin has the head and wings of an 
eagle and the body of a lion so (1) it isn't going to have a mane and 
(2) it really can't be used for lion symbolism in the Christ and 
Lucifer comparison. (Strictly speaking they didn't exactly 
start "together" because Lucifer was the greatest of the 
angels /created/ by God.)

Totally irrelevant to the discussion but of interest to me is that 
the symbol of Somerset, the county in which I live, is a scarlet 
griffin.