Flex Mentallo

The title of the Brown novel refers, among other things, to the finding of the first murder victim in the Grand Gallery of the Louvre.

The Old French expression for the Holy Grail, San gréal, actually is a play on Sang réal, which literally means "royal blood" in Old French.

The authors similarly assert that Jesus and Mary founded the Merovingian royal lineage, guarded to this day, as in Brown’s novel, by a secret society known as the Priory of Sion.

It is by no means the first work to connect the grail legend to a conspiracy. Though he apparently denies it, it's evident that Brown based his novel largely on Holy Blood, Holy Grail, a supposedly factual account published in 1982.

A set of ancient documents is discovered which purportedly tells the true story of Jesus, who marries Mary and escapes to Southern France rather than be crucified.

The plot goes through many twists and turns, eventually to reveal that Mary is the source of Jesus’s bloodline, and the grail is a reference to her womb.

In it he postulates that the Holy Grail is not a cup, but the earthly remains of Mary Magdalene, buried beneath Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland.

Dan Brown published his bestseller, The Da Vinci Code in 2003.

THE HOLY GRAIL

Merry Christmas lads and lasses. I've always been fond of the Bethlehem pedigree even though most of those I've owned have slipped through my fingers. I'd be interested to see what we have between us. Post Silver as well if you want. Here is my keeper.

OH! Well done! That's a pretty one!

.... I had forgotten how much I loved this movie GOD BLESS... -jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u It's a perfect movie, and how often can one say that? It struck me as I was researching this essay, that the young heroine bears a striking resemblance to the young Jennifer Connelly in Jim Henson's (vastly inferior) Labyrinth. I wonder if that was a conscious decision by Del Toro, or is serendipity at work here yet again?

Thanks for the kind words Andy! I aim to have the second part up on New Year's Day. Merry Christmas!

Welcome home BZ! Merry Christmas to you and our fellow contributors!

Theseus is not triumphant, but tragic. As a consequence of his own actions he becomes king at the heavy cost of his father’s death; and his story is a warning, that in our striving we must risk becoming the monster instead.So then, if we fail, instead of the longed for heroic transformation, we must through suffering and sacrifice seek redemption. For what if the Minotaur aspired to be a hero? And this is the story, not of the labyrinth, but of the grail… Next: THE HOLY GRAIL

Every myth serves to illumine. For each of us, the quest we undertake throughout our lives involves the opportunity to become the hero of our own story; to slay the dragon, to rescue the distressed damsel, to do good, to be transformed - and this is an essential rite of passage if we are to truly fulfill our destiny, whatever it may be.

Theseus anticipates his triumphal return. He neglects, however, to put up the white sails... From the headland on Cape Sounion, King Aegeus sees the black-sailed ship approach and, presuming his son dead, commits suicide by throwing himself into the sea that is named after him...

But on the way home, Theseus inexplicably abandons Ariadne on the island of Naxos.

Leading the other Athenians back out of the labyrinth, he sets sail for home on the black-sailed ship, accompanied by Ariadne.

Weilding the sword of his father Aegeus, Theseus slays the Minotaur .

In metaphorical language, he makes the night journey into the soul’s fearful, unmapped places to grapple with hidden terrors.

There in the depths Theseus must confront the ‘dark twin’, which waits to devour him, what Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung, called the ‘integration of the shadow.’

Symbolically, Ariadne has become a mediator between pairs of opposites, the ‘guide into the labyrinth’ that enables the seeker to face the dark secret and return to daylight.

When the sacrifice approaches, the young Athenian Prince Theseus heroically volunteers to slay the monster. He promises to his father, Aegeus, that he will put up a white sail on his journey back home if he is successful and will have the crew put up black sails if he is killed. On seeing him, Minos' daughter Ariadne instantly falls in love with Theseus and gives him a ball of golden thread to help him navigate the labyrinth, thus allowing him to retrace his path. (For it is only later, in medieval times, that labyrinths were designed with only one path.)

Now as punishment for their slaying of his son Androgeus, Minos required that seven Athenian youths and seven maidens, drawn by lots, must be sent every seventh year to be devoured by the Minotaur.