It is the gargoyles of Notre Dame which have provided the popular image of gargoyles as horned creatures with wings, which is how many people picture them today. The most famous of these is the Strix, or Styrga, a human bird hybrid which is posed with its head in its hands. Many of the hundreds of gargoyles on the Medieval cathedral of Notre Dame are ( or were ) chimeras. These include familiar chimeras such as griffins (a lion and eagle mixed) and harpies (a half woman, half bird) but also more abstract mixtures. A large number of them depict chimeras – bizarre hybrid creatures mixing different animal parts. Gargoyles are carved from stone and take many forms. Gargoyles serve as water spouts, architectural gutters. The Dutch term, waterspuwer has the more visceral translation ‘water vomiter’. In Italian, a gargoyle is called a doccione o gronda sporgente which translates to ‘protruding gutter’ while the German word, wasserspeier means ‘water spewer’. The terms for gargoyle in other languages tends to be more descriptive. This reflects the fact the water tends to come out of the mouth of the gargoyle. It comes from the words gargouille, meaning ‘throat’, and gargariser, meaning ‘to gurgle’. The English term ‘gargoyle’ is French in origin.
Their unusual and distinctive appearance makes them a favorite feature of old buildings for many people, and they are even the topic of several legends and folktales. This grotesque appearance is why gargoyle like creatures on the sides of buildings with no structural purpose are known as ‘grotesques’. They are most commonly associated with the grand architecture of the Middle Ages, and they generally take the form of a grotesque figure spurting the water from a fearsome looking mouth. Gargoyles were first created to prevent structural damage to buildings by preventing rainwater from running down the side of a monument and eroding the mortar between the stonework.
Initially designed to filter rainwater away from the edge of a building, they also have an arcane purpose – to ward off evil spirits. Gargoyles are an architectural feature that have existed for thousands of years.
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