Gargoyles?

History is filled with many different types of mythical animals and/or creatures like Unicorns, Centaurs, Griffins and Gargoyles. You are probably saying, “wait just a minute here, a Gargoyle is a carved stone creature that is a spout designed to convey water from the roof away from the sides of the building.” The origin is Old French Gargouile ‘throat’, also ‘Gargoyle’ according to Oxford University Press. Some gargoyles are just a grotesque face with open mouths to act as a water spout and some were creatures that were a part of one animal or mythical creature and the part of another.

In many ways Gargoyles are Chimeras just like Griffins which appear on some structure but not as Gargoyles, because by definition a Gargoyle is a water spout of a gutter. In keeping with the tradition Griffins were placed on some buildings instead of a Gargoyles because the water is being routed off the roof a different way. Let me take a step back, in Greek mythology the Chimera: "was a monstrous fire-breathing creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, composed of the parts of multiple animals: upon the body of a lioness with a tail that terminated in a snake’s head, the head of a goat arose on her back at the center of her spine." per Wikipedia. This is the origin of the Chimera, and later many different mythical creatures were chimerical in nature so it seemed to become that any mixed up creature was a Chimera. This would be like a biological determination of the group of creatures that have at least two different species in the mix. This is like the classic Chimera from Greek mythology part feline, serpent and bovine but you can say it is just one so it is a Chimera. Today the science community has even used Chimera as a classification for some of their hybrid creations that they have made by the combination of two no-related or related species.

A Chimera is not the only type of Gargoyle… there are Lions, Goats and many other types of normal animals that were used. For this article I am not that interested in the normal animals but the Chimera type of Gargoyles. Some say that one of the first Gargoyles was the head of a dragon slain or captured by St. Romanus in ancient France. The dragon’s head was placed on a new church to scare away evil. This may be the story that was used to explain some of the first Gargoyles that were placed on churches. There are different points of view on why the Church would have Gargoyles in the first place and a basic theory is that they are there to scare away evil. So they thought that placing an evil-looking statue on a place would scare evil? This sounds like the way many other cultures use some of the ornamental decorations that they may place on their structures, ships or a amulets on certain days or year round. This was done to appease, show alliance or even to scare away an entity that is believed to dwell in the area.

Getting back to Gargoyles and why they may have been placed on churches, one reason was to scare away evil and another reason may have been to scare the people into coming to church. Most people in those times who were putting the evil looking Gargoyles on churches did not know how to read. So a visual depiction of evil was used on the outside of the Church possibly to say that inside the church was safe from evil or that the “end of days” was at hand. There is also a belief that the Catholic Church placed Gargoyles on the Church to help with the integration of pagans to Catholicism.

Gargoyles changed when they started being used for more than just a water spout. They were placed in different places on buildings but were they still Gargoyles? Some say that they were just because they were the same types of sculptures but to architects if it is not a water spout it is not a Gargoyle. I think that all the Gargoyles that are not naturally occurring animals are Chimeras like I have said before. The creature has wings like a bat on its back, the torso, arms and legs are like a man except the hands and feet are claws and the face is of some beast or bird with horns on the top of its head. This is a classic description of a majority of the Gargoyles and what architects call “Grotesque” when they are ornamental and not water spouts.

Let’s leave all the architectural views on Gargoyles behind now along with most of the other views and the reasons for them. Let’s just say that they are statutes of Chimeras and possibly what some artist envisioned as evil. Looking at how evil was depicted can show us that for the most part it was some type of Chimera. Look at some of the classic depictions of evil like the Devil or a satyr, a man with horns and the lower body of a goat. Sounds like a Chimera to me, a demon can have many descriptions but for the most part there is a part of this and a part of that, again another Chimera.  Consider the typical description of a Gargoyle that I described earlier with the bat wings - this is also a description that is seen as a demon. In some of the material I have read any animal type of Chimera is a sign of evil because Chimeras are created by magic or the unnatural or unearthly union between the two halves to make the whole. Wait what about the Platypus, is it a Chimera? Let’s see, it is a mammal that lays eggs and is venomous, so it meets the criteria of a Chimera. It is funny to think about what the first naturalist thought when they saw the Platypus - it’s a beaver look at its tail, no, it is a fury duck look at the bill and it lays eggs. Many scholars who did not see the animal at first but saw the sketches and a pelt were sure that it was a fraud. Then when they saw a live Platypus they were still not ready to say it was a real animal.  Many thought it was a mutation or freak (a birth defect) and wanted to see more. Eventually they came around and found a way to classify the anomaly that it posed to their idea of how the world of animals worked. What would happen if they found a real Mermaid, Centaur, Minotaur or a Griffin and they could see that it was not a mythical animal but a true Chimera? I am sorry for jumping around some but sometimes my mind works that way.

Some Gargoyles look like demons, and all Chimeras are a sign of evil. I don’t think that this is a true statement, it is too general. It is like the first person that saw a Platypus and tried to say what it was - how to classify something can have two classifications. You make another classification, a horse and a donkey had a mule. I think I have said the same thing way too much in this article. I hope that I did not cause anyone to have a headache with this article, this is just the way I sometimes work though something. So what did I come up with? First, a sculpture on a building that has any thing to do with water drainage is a Gargoyle. Next a Chimera was one of the first mixed breeds so its name ended up as a classification and not just one creature. Looking at the article, you may see how you can think inside the box while taking it apart and putting it back together in a form that fits your own style. I do not just agree with the information that is out there but rather look to see how it can fit in similar situations or ideas.