All kinds of fantastic sculptural images adorning the facades of majestic cathedrals occupy a special place in historical European architecture. The stone guards look at the changing face of the city, and it seems that they know some kind of secret. Why did these creatures become objects of inspiration for sculptors and architects? Not everyone knows, but a gargoyle is not just a grotesque fruit of creative imagination, but a real symbol of culture, which has deep historical roots.
The legendary monster from the Seine
Medieval France was distinguished by an abundance of stories about monsters that lived in a particular area. The so-called local mythology had a serious impact on culture and art, and the legend of a gigantic serpent from the lower reaches of the Seine is considered one of the key.
In the 7th century, ships heading up the River Seine suffered in many disasters, allegedly due to attacks by a monster called La Gargouille. A dragon, like a huge snake, drowned ships, casting jets of water on them, luring them into whirlpools. Some sources report that the gargoyle is also a fire-breathing snake. Saint Roman, who was at that time the bishop of Rouen, heeded the cries of the people and set off to tame the monster.
Survived by fear, the inhabitants could not find the strength to help the priest, only the criminal convicted to death volunteered to agree to become a bait. However, the bishop, armed only with the holy cross and prayers, pacified the dragon. Subsequently, the inhabitants burned the monster at the stake, failed to burn only the head and throat. This part was strengthened at the Rouen Cathedral as a warning to evil spirits.
Etymology of the name and spelling
Numerous water dragons in France bore similar names in which, one way or another, the original word gorge (pharynx) or garg (from the verb gargarizare) was played out. Some sources trace the origin of the Greek "gorgon". In any case, the gargoyle is a kind of monster with a greedy throat, ready to devour careless sailors or boatmen, and along with water.
In Russian they write both “gargoyle” and “gargoyle” or “gargoyle”. Semantic separation is known to few, and it is rather vague. In most cases, the first option refers to mythological monsters of all kinds of configurations, and the second and third options - to architectural elements in the form of grotesque sculptural designs of weirs.
Gargoyle in architecture
The utilitarian appointment of a stone monster on the roofs of ancient cathedrals is actually quite far from religion. This is an artistic element designed to decorate and partially mask the complex system of cascading weirs. In fact, a gargoyle is a drainpipe that directs precipitation to the gutter below, through which water will enter the next pipe.
If, at the same time, it is just to stick a cathedral with sticking pipes, it is unlikely that its appearance can be considered a work of architectural art. Gargoyles are not just sculptures and a successful attempt to camouflage such a mundane and practical structure as a gutter. It is also a decoration that carries a distinct ritual meaning, awakening awe in the parishioners.
Monster Sculptures
The most interesting thing about gargoyles is their diversity, which has long gone beyond the narrow zoological image of the serpentine dragon. Majestic buildings are decorated with no less impressive fantastic sculptures, among which you can see not only dragons, but also unknown monsters, strange people, characters of legends and tales, and some of them even had real prototypes.
The most famous gargoyle, whose photo is widely circulated on the Internet, actually refers to chimeras. This is not a drain, but one of the characters in the so-called gallery of chimeras at the famous Notre Dame Cathedral. This is the Owl, which is sometimes called the Thinker because of the characteristic brooding posture.
Gargoyles and chimeras are often mixed in the minds of people, and they are mistakenly referred to the same kind of monsters. Over time, the boundaries between species really blurred, and now these concepts are even used as synonyms, which in the academic sense, of course, is wrong.
Gargoyles metamorphoses
Initially, gargoyles were called exclusively gigantic dragon snakes, which migrated from mythology into the category of architectural elements. But the gutters took shape in other ways too: grotesque characters depicting sinners and devils in hell, lions and other animals. By and large, any object of designing a drain can be considered a gargoyle - from a frog to a monk.
The chimera is an alien from Greek mythology, the so-called monster, whose body consisted of parts of a lion, goat and snake. The lion's head, paws and torso, a goat neck with a horned head grows from the same place, and instead of the tail there is a snake, which, according to various sources, affects with poison or breathes fire.
Over time, the chimeras “acquired” parts of other animals: bat wings, monkey faces, hair or scales at the discretion of the author. A chimera is something that cannot exist, illogical and monstrous. It is not surprising that the gargoyle fell into the same category. Only a few centuries passed, and the names quietly merged.
