Caesar sends an expedition to the lands of the Sarmatians (modern-day Ukraine) to find a griffin based on historical Greek texts. Getafix, warned by a dream that his shaman friend is in danger, goes with Asterix and Obelix to help.
Tropes:
- All Amazons Want Hercules: Obelix makes a very strong impression on the Sarmatian ladies, all of which are warlike and physically active.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: One Roman soldier, Fakenius, always has a sickly green skin for some reason.
- Amazon Brigade: The Sarmatian women fight while the men stay in the village (with shared custody of the children).
- Amazon Chaser: One Roman is taken prisoner by a Sarmatian warrior. Judging by the hearts fluttering around him, he doesn't mind one bit.
- Amazonian Beauty: Most of the Sarmatian ladies, being the basis for the original Amazons. One of them falls hard for Obelix, but he's too worried about Dogmatix to reciprocate.
- Annoying Arrows: The Scythian guides the Romans hired at one point return from a scouting trip, with multiple arrows sticking out of their clothes. They don't seem bothered by it in the least, and casually tell the Romans to watch out for the arrows.
- Artistic Licence Geology: There is no way a dinosaur's corpse could have survived intact in a frozen lake for 75 million years (the time Styracosaurs were alive).
- Artistic License – Paleontology: The real "griffin" looks far more like a Styracosaurus, a North American dinosaur, than the Protoceratops fossils that purportedly inspired ancient depictions of griffins, not to mention it would have been way too old to be found in such a state of preservation. Not to mention that even for Styracosaurus it's colossal, seemingly sauropod-sized.
- The Backwards Я: Downplayed, only the letter "E" is reversed by the Sarmatians.
- Battle Discretion Shot: The battle between the Sarmatians and the Romans takes place during a thick fog, so the reader doesn't get to see anything.
- Been There, Shaped History: Getafix invents borscht trying to recreate the magic potion with local ingredients.
- Beleaguered Boss:
- The Roman centurion leading the expedition to find the griffin is saddled with two lieutenants more interested in bickering with each other than collaborating, a hostage who doesn't know where the griffin is, and legionaries more interested in flirting with the hostage than guarding her.
- The legionary left in charge to watch the hostage breaks down crying because his men all went to look for flowers for her, allowing her to escape.
- Brought Down to Badass: Asterix fights without any magic potion due to it freezing in its gourd. Obelix, as usual, has no issues.
- Bumbling Henchmen Duo: The cartographer and venator (gladiator specializing in fighting beasts) are always sniping at each other for past mistakes, including looking for a cyclops in Helvetia (Switzerland) and mistaking a giraffe for a long-necked hyena.
- Crush Blush: Obelix stays red-faced for several panels after being kissed (on the nose) by an Amazonian Beauty. The latter also blush often in his presence.
- Danger — Thin Ice: The ice of the lake the griffin is frozen in is quite thin, and breaks the moment the centurion angrily begins to stomp with his feet once he discovers what the Griffin truly is.
- Discreet Drink Disposal: Obelix quietly throws away the drink he has been offered after Asterix informs him its made with fermented mare's milk.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Dogmatix running with wolves is treated by Obelix like a teenager hanging out with juvenile delinquents.
- Doing In the Wizard: The "griffin" is a Styracosaurus trapped in a frozen lake.
- Dream Weaver: The shaman of the Sarmatians admits that he used his magic to send Getafix a dream that warned him the Sarmatians needed his help. It was easier to do than send a messenger marmot.
- Exposed to the Elements: The Sarmatians are clearly very used to the harsh winter conditions of their homeland. Many of the men and children have bared torsos; the shaman isn't even wearing protective footwear in the snow. The women too, most of them having bared arms, shoulders and backs, some having bare legs, and in one case even a bared midriff.
- Favors for the Sexy: The Romans fall over each other to guard their Sarmatian prisoner. She escapes with no difficulty when one legionary wants to go pick flowers for her, leading to all but one of them staying to guard her.
- Foreign Queasine: The Gauls are less than thrilled at the prospect of drinking fermented mare milk and eating mare's milk cheese. Although by the end, Obelix seems to have acquired a taste for it.
- Gender Flip: Sarmatian men are reduced to household tasks and complain about the women leaving them to clear up the dishes to go dancing. Historically, Sarmatian women did indeed fight alongside their men.
- Here There Be Dragons: The opening pages point out how the Romans treat all of the land east to their empire this way, making up stories about the outlandish creatures that supposedly live there.
- Hidden Depths: Obelix is sensitive to shamanic powers, which means he has these too.
- Hollywood History: Subverted in one instance: Vainglorius is anachronistically concerned that the expedition is taking them too close to falling off the edge of the world. Cartographus irritably points out that the Romans already know the Earth isn't flat, as the Greeks proved it was a sphere hundreds of years prior — apparently Vainglorius just has extremely backwards personal beliefs about geography.
- Horse of a Different Color: The shaman rides a reindeer.
- Hot Drink Cure: Getafix's shaman friend makes him tea with fermented mare's milk in an attempt to help him get over his cold.
- Hurricane of Puns:
- The Romans' Scythian guides are used for web-related puns, as they're homophones with "site" (as in, website) in French.
- The Sarmatian women are the source of a number of "Amazon" puns (Amazon package, Amazon delivery, etc).
- Idiotic Partner Confession: Obelix accidentally reveals that only the tribe's shaman knows where the griffin is, leading to the shaman being kidnapped.
- Illness Blanket: Getafix's first appearance in the story has him wrapped in a blanket after catching a cold.
- Inexplicably Identical Individuals: The Sarmatians have several villagers looking a lot like the regulars at the Gauls' village, including a short mustached warrior and a rotund deliveryman (of logs rather than menhirs). Obelix even thinks the short guy reminds him of someone...
- Know When to Fold 'Em: The venator isn't afraid of fighting wolves, but an entire pack on rapidly-disintegrating ice...
- Logical Weakness: The gourd and barrel of magic potion are revealed to have been frozen solid in the trip to the Sarmatian village, rendering them useless, which was to be expected in the cold climate. And thawing the potion won't solve it, since the freezing has robbed the potion of its magic properties.
- Meaningful Name: Fakenius the legionary is constantly complaining that the truth is being hidden from them.
- Misplaced Wildlife: Styracosaurus was a North-American dinosaur and wouldn't have lived in what is now Ukraine.
- Monster in the Ice: The griffin turns out to be a Styracosaurus frozen deep beneath a lake, so deep that only its silhouette is visible.
- No Man of Woman Born:
- The shaman says the day will be saved by the smallest of the Gauls, so his wife begrudgingly allows Asterix to tag along. It turns out this meant Dogmatix.
- Similarly, the griffin's territory is forbidden to Sarmatians except shamans. The Gauls, naturally, don't count.
- Noodle Incident: Cartographus and Vainglorius frequently bring up previous expeditions they have been on that ultimately went nowhere, like an expedition to try and capture a cyclops. Bringing up this failed mission is a Berserk Button for Vainglorius.
- Ornamental Weapon: Averted; due to not having his magic potion, Asterix actually uses his sword as a weapon when facing Vainglorius.
- Running Gag:
- One of the Sarmatians (Klorokine) helpfully bringing Getafix the ingredients he'd asked for... except it's always a homophone.
- Obelix's mare is always seen heaving under his weight whenever she is carrying him. At one point, Obelix ends up carrying her, to the horse's confusion.
- Sadly Mythtaken: In-Universe. The venator believes the world is flat, the cartographer protests it's round as proved by the Greeks, and when he asks the centurion to intervene, the latter says it doesn't matter what shape it is as long as Atlas has a good grip on it, to the cartographer's chagrin (Atlas holds up the sky, not the world itself).
- Saying Too Much: As Asterix and Obelix negotiate with the Romans to free Kalashnikovna, Obelix blurts out that Kalashnikovna can't help the Romans anyway since only the Shaman knows where the Griffin is. Naturally, the Romans immediately demand the Gauls exchange the Shaman for Kalashnikovna.
- "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: Ever since the Greek's discovery of their lands, the Sarmatians invented the legend of the griffin to scare off greedy invaders to prevent them coming to take their gold. However, they didn't count on people actually coming for the "griffin" itself, or being numerous enough to have the necessary forces to invade.
- Shout-Out:
- The shaman's tamed wolf is called Wolverine.
- Sarmatians having two warriors looking identical to Asterix and Obelix might be a reference to Kayko & Kokosh, a series very similar to Asterix from more or less the region where the book takes place.
- Soup Is Medicine: Getafix's attempt to remake the magic potion results in a nourishing soup that cures the cold he had caught earlier in the book.
- Stay in the Kitchen: With a genderbent twist; since among the Sarmatians it is common for the women to be warriors and the men to stay in the village, the leader of the women gently turns down Asterix's offer to let him and Obelix deal with the Romans, telling him war is a women's job.
- Theme Naming: The Sarmatians all have names ending in -ine, which Obelix finds funny, since it's the ending used by Gaul women in the series.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: The pirates only appear in one panel, while having a peaceful nap. As they did not met the Gauls here, they were not sunk this time.
- Translation with an Agenda: Cartographus, the cartographer, very freely interprets the Sarmatian accent, constantly putting words in his prisoner's mouth. The reason for this is that he is after the very real gold that can be found there to compensate for his meager payments for the previous expeditions, over a presumably mythological griffin.
- Villainous Valor: The venator actually stands his ground and briefly fights Asterix. Not for long, but then again, Asterix chops his harpoon in half and the Sarmatians show up shooting arrows.
These Sarmatians are crazy!
