Gallienus - Griffin Coin

Mythology is actually fascinating when we remove the Christian lens through which they survived the dark ages.

The Roman myths, and the Greek ones from which they were derived, sit mostly in a fuzzy spectrum between "clearly that is just a story" and historical evidence that many learned men genuinely believed them. If I recall, there was a city that was spared during a war, because of a mythical alliance shared with the invading city, detailed in the Odyssey.

We know that the Greeks genuinely believed that Unicorns were real, earthly animals living in India. This belief actually persisted until the Age of Discovery failed to present any proof of their existence. The world to the Romans was a golden, ordered Rome surrounded on all sides by the unknown. There were great and fantastical creatures that were imported from Africa, and war elephants in Asia, so why not griffins and hippocampus and centaurs?

At any rate, I recall reading that the coins were made during a time of hardship, to invoke the protection of a god. Yours makes an appeal to Apollo.