A gargoyle is a carved stone grotesque looking sculpture with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls and eroding the mortar between the stones. Architects often used multiple gargoyles on buildings to divide the flow of rainwater off the roof to minimize the potential damage from a rainstorm. A trough is cut in the back of the gargoyle and rainwater typically exits through the open mouth, which is agape with sharp teeth protruding from the front of the mouths.
Grotesque is a sculpture that does not work as a waterspout and serves only an ornamental or artistic function.
A gargoyle is used for protection, which may be the reason why there are a bundence of them on churches, and there are many different shapes based on different themes. There are large winged versions, elongated-neck versions, night/day versions; but ultimately, they are creepy, fantastical creatures which can either be ominous or for security, as gargoyles are said to frighten off and protect those that it guards, such as said church, from any evil or harmful spirits.
Some specific gargoyles can only appear in certain circumstances. Night 'goyles' can only appear when the moon is out, hidden goyles can only appear when you look at a certain angle and many are roughly the size of a regular sized monkey, but others can very large (as big as you can make it, really). The best depiction of these creatures is in the mid 1990s American cartoon series called Gargoyles, which soon turned into a video game adaptation and a comic book spin-off series of the same name.
The series features a collection of gargoyles that turn to stone during the day, focusing on a clan led by Goliath. In the year 994, the clan lives in a castle in medieval Scotland alongside humans, until many of them are killed by betrayal and the remainder are magically frozen in stone until the castle 'rises above the clouds.' One hundred years later, in 1994, billionaire David Xanatos purchases the castle and has it reconstructed atop his New York skyscraper awakening the six remaining gargoyles. In trying to adjust to their new world, they are aided by a sympathetic NYPD detective, Elisa Maza, and quickly come into conflict with the plotting Xanatos. With trying to deal with the gargoyles' attempts to adjust to modern New York, the series also incorporated various supernatural threats to their safety and to the world at large.
The term originates from the French gargouille, which in English is likely to mean 'throat' or is otherwise known as the 'gullet'. It is also connected to the French verb gargariser, which means 'to gargle.' The Italian word for gargoyle is doccione or gronda sporgente, an architecturally precise phrase which means 'protruding gutter.' They are gray in colour and have a sandy/stoney texture to their skin. If a gargoyle is being controlled, their eyes can change colour and they can emit loud sonorous cries from their mouths or beaks. As they are made of stone, fire or nature elements can help to defeat them; except water of course.
