Chapter 63 Chapter 61

Princess Sophie. Sophie felt a void as she heard Teabing's cane disappear down the corridor.She turned to Langdon with a sense of loss.Langdon shook his head, as if guessing what she was thinking. "Yes, Sophie," he said softly, his eyes very determined. "I thought the same thing when I realized your grandfather was a member of the Priory. You said he was going to tell you a secret about your family." Langdon paused. "Saunière is not a Merovingian surname." Sophie didn't know whether she was relieved or disappointed.Earlier, Langdon had asked her mother's name abruptly.Now, the question makes a lot of sense. "Showell. Could she be of Merovingian descent?" she asked anxiously.

He shook his head again. "I'm sorry, I'm not sure. The Merovingian descendants have only two family names—Plantad and St. Carlyle. The descendants are all in hiding, perhaps protected by the Priory." Sophie recited the names silently and shook her head.No one in her family was named Plantard or St. Carlyle.She was tired and more confused, less able to understand what her grandfather was trying to tell her.Sophie wished her grandfather hadn't mentioned family.He tore open the old wound, which still ached.They're dead, Sophie.They won't be coming back.She thought of her mother singing to lull her to sleep; of playing on her father's shoulders; of her grandmother and brother looking at her with green eyes and smiling at her.It's all been stolen.All she has left is her grandfather.

And now my grandfather is gone too.It's just me! Sophie turned around silently, looked at the "Last Supper" on the wall, and stared at Magdalene's long fiery red hair and serene eyes.Sophie could feel the blankness of a lost lover in Magdalene's eyes. "Robert?" she said softly. Langdon came over. "Although I heard the story of the Holy Grail for the first time tonight, I feel like it has something to do with my family." Langdon wanted to put his hand on Sophie's shoulder to comfort her, but in the end he didn't.He said, "Sophie, you must have heard the story of Magdalene. There are stories like that, we just don't realize they exist."

"I do not understand." "The story of the Holy Grail is everywhere, but hidden from discovery. The Holy See forbade people to speak openly of the fleeing Mary, so people recorded her story in secret ways. These methods included metaphors and symbols. Wait." "Of course, through works of art." Langdon pointed to the "Last Supper" on the wall, and said: "This is a perfect example. The stories of Mary Magdalene and Jesus are implied in many immortal literary and musical works." Langdon briefly introduced Sophie to some of the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Mozart, and Victor Hugo.Those works expressed in cryptic ways the hope of restoring the status of the Virgin Mary.Those beautiful legends—such as the Knights of the Round Table, King Arthur, and Sleeping Beauty—all stem from the story of the Holy Grail.Victor Hugo's and Mozart's The Magic Flute both use symbolism to imply the story of the Holy Grail.

"Once you open your eyes and look for the Holy Grail," Langdon said, "you see her everywhere. She's in paintings, music, books, even cartoons, theme parks, and blockbuster movies." Langton held up the Mickey Mouse watch on his wrist and told Sophie: "Walt Disney has been silently dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the story of the Holy Grail all his life. He has been hailed as a 'modern-day Leonardo da Vinci' .” Both men were pioneers of their time, both artists of unrivaled genius, both members of the Priory, and both were known for their mischief.Like da Vinci, Walt Disney loved to use symbolism and hide secrets in his work.For a trained semiotician, watching Disney's early films is like watching and enjoying a myriad of allusions and tropes.Most of Disney's movies have shadows of pagan legends and stories of the Holy Grail.The Walt Disney Company brought the stories of "Cinderella," "Sleeping Beauty," and "Snow White" to the screen because they were stories about persecuted divine women.People don't need knowledge of symbolism to understand that the plot where the princess eats a poisoned apple and turns into an ugly monster clearly alludes to Eve's fall.It is also easy to see that the story of Princess Aurora, who is known as "Rose" and "Sleeping Beauty" who evades the hunt, is actually a children's version of the Holy Grail story.

The folks at Walt Disney often incorporate hidden symbolism into filmmaking.On one occasion, Langdon recalled, a student brought in a DVD of The Lion King.While playing the disc, the student suddenly pressed the pause button and showed everyone a freeze frame.On the screen, the dust floating on the head of "Simba" forms the word "SEX" (sex).In Langdon's view, this is not so much a cue from the producers to enjoy sex as a prank on their part.Langdon also found that Disney's ability to use symbolism cannot be underestimated.It cannot be a coincidence that the colorful images in the movie "The Mermaid" contain a lot of symbolic elements, most of which are related to goddesses.

When Langdon saw "The Mermaid" for the first time, he was taken aback.He found that the "underwater dwelling" in the movie looked exactly like the building in "The Repentant Magdalene" painted by the seventeenth-century painter Georges de la Tour.That painting is of an exiled Mary Magdalene, though it's a bit flamboyant in the film compared to the original.The Little Mermaid's name—Ariel—is also strongly associated with the divine feminine, meaning "the besieged holy city" in the Book of Ishamel.Of course, the flowing red hair of the little mermaid also has a unique symbolic meaning.

At this time, the sound of Teabing's cane came from the corridor.His pace sounded extraordinarily fast.He walked into the study with a pale face, and said indifferently: "Robert, you'd better explain. You haven't told me the truth."