The Seattle Scribe reads and then talks about it

I know this is clichéd, but I've been reading The Da Vinci Code. At least I'm several years behind the trend. Not surprisingly, it's a very good book.

You probably know the basic story even if you haven't read it. The Holy Grail isn't a cup, it's really the hidden blood lineage of Jesus whose decendents live to this day. Some group found the proof and blackmailed the Catholic church to keep it secret. Da Vinci was the leader of this group for a time and embedded several clues and secrets in his art (most of his famous art was commissioned by the Catholic church, The Last Supper for example). I don't want to give too much of the main story away so I'll stop there. But there's so much more in this book.

Dan Brown throws in etymological backrounds of words, one of my pet hobbies. For example, during the rise of Christianity villagers tended to be pagans, hence the word "villain". The church recasted several pagan symbols as evil as well. A witch's pointy hat was the dress of some pagan sect. Poseidon's trident was ubiquitous. Who do we imagine always holding a trident now? What if I called it a pitchfork?

And the most famous of all evil symbols, the pentagram, was a universal symbol of femininity. It was the symbol of Venus ("Lucifer" in Latin) and was agreed upon by more or less the entire pagan world. I didn't know this, but apparently if you plot Venus's movements over 8 years it traces a five pointed star. The four year cycle of the original Greek Olympics was timed to coincide with these movements. Apparently the original symbol for the Olympics was the pentagram, but was changed for modern times to be the five rings we know today.

The church hit two birds with one stone by recasting the "pentacle" (as it's referred to in the book). They eliminated a powerful pagan symbol while at the same time put women down. I don't know how true it is, but one of the arguments of the book is that pagans respected women as basically equal and celebrated sex, while Christians locked women out of positions of power and turned sex into a shameful act. So for it to count as two birds with one stone, you have to think the church wanted to denigrate women, which doesn't seem too far fetched considering women can't be (Catholic) clergy.

Some king of France sent out sealed orders to his armed forces that were to be opened on a specific date. The orders were to round up and slaughter the Knights Templar. The date? Friday the 13th. In October.

This is all gravy to me. I love this stuff. More! And I'm only halfway into the book. So far I'd say it's well worth your time. I got the handsome illustrated edition, which is helpful since you actually get to see the works of art he's talking about without looking them up. Incidentally, now my life won't be complete until I see the Louvre.