GargoylesGargoylesGargoylesGargoylesGargoylesGargoyles

✦ comes from the old french word “gargouille” meaning “throat”

✦ carved onto outside of gothic cathedrals

Possible explanations / purposes for gargoyles

✦ warding off evil - a "kiss my behind" keep away deterrent to demons

✦ warding off evil - a "don't bother, we're here already doing demonic stuff" deterrent to demons

✦ a reminder to parishioners of the perils of evil - bad guys are marginalized to the outside of the church (but why so high up and hard to see?)

✦ as pagan symbols to encourage believers in pre-Christian ways to come to church (make them feel welcomed or at home, as it were)

✦ Legend: That gargoyles are frozen in stone during the day, but come alive at night, soaring over the city to protect it from demons

Practical Purpose✦ practical

purpose: to direct water off roof away from the walls and the foundation of the structure

✦ corbel: a decorative support for the bottom of an arch

Grotesques✦ A carved creature that does not serve the

purpose of a drain pipe is frequently referred to as a "Grotesque".

For converting people...

✦ Since literacy was generally not an option for most people, images were very important.

✦ religious images that non-Christians were accustomed to were of animals or mixtures of animals and humans (e.g. the horned god, the Green Man aka “Jack of the Green),

✦ putting similar images on churches would encourage non-Catholics to join the religion, or at least make them feel more comfortable about it

???

✦ as retribution for not paying the stone carver?

Myth of the Gargoyle✦ They can stand guard and ward off unwanted

spirits and other creatures.

✦ If they're hideous and frightening they can scare off all sorts of things.

✦ They come alive at night when everyone's asleep (and you can't see them to prove that they don't) so they can protect you when you're vulnerable.

✦ Better still, the ones with wings can fly round the whole area and cover the village or town as well as the church. (And if someone does see something, who's to say whether it was just a bat or one of the gargoyles on the wing?)

✦ They return to their places when the sun comes up (and no-one can prove that they weren't out and about, and no-one respectable who rises and sets with the sun is going to be mistaken by them for an enemy and be dealt with).

✦ Chartres Cathedral

✦ Christ in Majesty with four apocalyptic beasts

Rouen Legend✦ The dragon caused much fear and

destruction with its fiery breath, spouting water and the devouring of ships and men. Each year, the residents of Rouen would placate Gargouille with an offering of a victim, usually a criminal, though it was said the dragon preferred maidens.

✦ Around 600, the village was saved by St. Romanis, who promised to deal with the dragon if the townspeople agreed to be baptized and to build a church. Romanus subdued the dragon by making the sign of the cross and then led the now docile beast back to town on a leash made from his priest's robe.

✦ A fierce dragon named La Gargouille described as having a long, reptilian neck, a slender snout and membranous wings lived in a cave near the river Seine.

✦ La Gargouille was then burned at the stake, it is said that his head and neck were so well tempered by the heat of his fiery breath, that they would not burn. These remnants were then mounted on the town wall and became the model for gargoyles for centuries to come.

Often hybrid animals were used for the features

Notre Dame Cathedral

Paris

Notre Dame Cathedral

Paris

FinFin

Sources✦ Gargoyle Etymology and History

http://www.stratis.demon.co.uk/gargoyles/gg-ety-hist-myth.htm, 2002.

✦ About Gargoyles http://northstargallery.com/gargoyles/aboutgargoyles.htm, 2001.