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I have always loved gargoyles. I like seeing them on buildings, and I liked the "Gargoyles" show when it was on. But I realized that I didn't actually know that much about them.
Some gargoyles have a practical purpose, as waterspouts:
"Gargoyle", the dictionary definition: a spout usually in the form of a grotesquely carved face or figure, projecting from a roof gutter. From the Old French "gargouille" and the Late Latin "gurgulio", both meaning throat. (from Chambers Concise dictionary)
"Gargoyles (in the strict sense) are carvings on the outside of buildings designed to direct water from the roof away from the base of the walls... ...Some gargoyles are undecorated but many are zoomorphic or anthropomorphic - often very imaginative and/or grotesque. This has led to the term 'gargoyle' being applied more widely to any grotesque carving in medieval buildings." (from Bob Trubshaw, posting in BritArch archives, 23Feb1999)
Source
Gargoyle Waterspout, Marble Church, Bodelwyddan – Clwyd, Wales
39 more gargoyles from around the world
Not all gargoyles are fierce protectors, guardian of the property or of those sleeping soundly within. Those carvings that don't serve a practical purpose are technically "grotesques," rather than gargoyles, but they tend to be lumped together. Some gargoyles are really quite rude:
Rude gargoyle number 1
I don't think that this one needs an explanation:
Rude gargoyle number two, Ely Cathedral
Even more rude are gargoyles positioned to "moon" another building, possibly a church of another denomination. None of these pictures were suitable for morning viewing, as they might result in the spewing of coffee on keyboards. But if you are truly curious, you may go to teh Google and search "defecating gargoyles."
There are many theories as to why gargoyles exist. The most prevalent seems to be that they were supposed to ward off evil.
"What are these fantastic monsters doing in the cloisters under the very eyes of the brothers as they read?....What is the meaning of these unclean monkeys, these savage lions and monstrous creatures?"
- St. Bernard of Clairvaux
It was a fitting question St. Bernard posed in asking how and why these "unclean monkeys" - these gargoyles and grotesques - came to inhabit man's monuments to God and beyond. Look up in the concentric center of town in almost any ancient city today and meet the gaze of these nightmares in the sky. How does one reconcile the anonymous, hallucinatory images - many of which are effectively hidden from view in remote recesses of their edifices - with the sacrosanct mission of the Church and the mathematical precision of Gothic architecture? How did they travel from country to country, erupting like tumors on buildings throughout Europe and, much later, America? They are not to be explained away as mere decorative whimsy.
While no ancient texts exist that explain the meaning of these strange creatures, we do know that artisans as far back as the Bronze Age used the grotesque - in gorgons, griffins and sphinxes, for example - to avert the powers of evil. In fact, the Italian word "grotteschi" - derived from "grotto," Latin for "cave" - was coined during the excavations of underground Roman ruins which 15th-Century archaeologists mistook for ancient caves. The mythical creatures found in the ruins of Nero's "Golden House," for example, are the direct ancestors of those the Transparanoia Brothers have bagged for you enjoyment. Perhaps medieval man felt he could ward off evil forces by presenting an equally powerful array of evil strength. Or do the cathedral carvings sculpturally represent the stony imprisonment of Satan's underlings in the act of besetting the Church?
One telling story related by the Bros., via medieval villagers, concerns a 7th-Century dragon called "La Gargouille," who would ascend from his cave near the river Seine to swallow ships and wreak havoc on nearby towns. To appease him, the villagers of Rouen would sacrifice a convict to La Gargouille every year and hope for the best. One day, a brave priest visiting Rouen offered to subdue the beast if, in exchange, the citizens of the town would build a church in his honor and agree to be baptized. The townsfolk agreed, and the priest was able to leash the dragon and bring him to the center of town to be burned at the stake (perhaps the very same one the fun- loving Rouenians used to dispatch Joan of Arc some years later). Only the dragon's head and neck would not burn, inured as they were to their owner's incendiary breath. It is probably based on this story that the heads and necks of monstrous creatures became popular motifs for medieval rainspouts, which is what is technically meant by the term "gargoyle." The rainspouts spurted more than just rain however; just imagine the daily sewage puked by a gurning gargoyle. A medieval denizen would do well to sidestep these creatures.
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Author Adrienne Mayor has a theory that gargoyles were inspired by fossils found by the ancient Greeks:
The idea of monsters, dragons, and other creatures of mythical proportions do have a solid foundation in history. Author and researcher Adrienne Mayor theorized that monster legends date back to nomads discovering fossilized dinosaur bones in central Asia several hundred years B.C.E. Imagine stumbling upon the giant bones of a pterodactyl or a protoceratops? You may have no idea that these bones were millions of years old -- just that they clearly belonged to a giant, powerful beast. From these early discoveries and with the help of folklore, griffins, monsters, and dragons may have been born.
Source
Hope that you enjoyed this rather brief introduction to gargoyles. New York City is home to quite a few, particularly on the Upper West Side.
Hope that everyone has a good day, and that it is not too cold. It's warming up in Colorado this week.