The Origin of Gothic
As Halloween approaches, the month of Gothic is in full swing. Today, the adjective describes something (or someone) mysterious and macabre, usually draped in black and other somber colors; but the word signifies something much deeper – and more ancient.
The term Gothic actually came from one of history’s most famous military leaders – the Roman general and eventual emperor Julius Caesar. A man bent on multiple conquests, as that added to his power and prestige, Julius Caesar, who lived from 101-44 BC, had trouble winning battles against a ferocious people who lived in what is now southern Germany and parts of France and Belgium. They resisted Caesar and his army at every turn, and proved most stubborn (and furious) in their defenses. In exasperation, Caesar dubbed these warriors the Visigoths, later shortened to simply Goths.
Before Caesar’s time, the Visigoths, under their commander Alaric, had invaded Rome and done serious damage to it. Caesar was determined to take revenge on them, and he eventually succeeded, in part. He was assassinated on the Ides of March in 44 BC in the Roman Senate, before the Gothic capitulation was complete.
While the Goths were eventually conquered – finally submitting to Clovis, the king of the Franks (French) in 507 AD – their influence on art, architecture, and culture continued through the Middle Ages. Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is an excellent example of Gothic style, with its flying buttresses and arched ceilings. This type of building, airy and high-reaching, replaced the old, and ironically named, Romanesque style – a heavier, clunkier design – throughout Europe.
By the nineteenth century, the word gothic transformed into another etymon – describing the novels of the period that were dark, gloomy, and mysterious. The literary masterpiece Jane Eyre, about a heroine sent as a governess to a foreboding mansion with its equally bizarre and brooding master, is an example of the gothic novel. Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the story about a Romanian aristocrat who is in reality a vampire, is another. This genre of period pieces remains popular today.
By the end of the 20th century, the Gothic craze became a widespread fashion trend, and a significant set of people began to dress, act, and show great interest in the macabre and the darkly grotesque. Vampires, the mythic creatures of eastern Europe, have become wildly popular as subject matter for books, films, and parties, especially during Halloween.
What was once an esoteric group has become an eclectic phenomenon.
It is interesting to see how much a word changes over time.
The adjective Gothic is definitely one of them. To begin as an ancient, barbaric people who refused to be conquered by what was then the greatest empire in the world to be known in modern times as a darkly typecast fashion statement, especially popular at this time of year – has proven to be quite a metamorphosis.
Pass it on.
