hts Templar, a heroic group that secretly guards documents that tell the truth. That society has been headed throughout history by such dedicated luminaries as Leonardo da Vinci, and in da Vinci's artwork there are said to be clues to and praise of the "real" Grail story. For example, the painting The Last Supper is said to place Mary, not the apostle John, at Jesus' right, and that "proves" the early church meant to include women more than the institutional one did.
To see why identifying Mary Magdalene with the Grail looms large in The Da Vinci Code, it may be useful to note the more conventional line of Grail discourse. The mythologist Bulfinch identifies the terms Grail, Graal, and Sangreal, as "the cup from which the Saviour drank at the Last Supper" (Bulfinch 909). The Da Vinci Code, on the other hand, says that the idea of the Grail as a vessel is wrong. It urges the view that Mary--especially her womb--was the real vessel and that this fact would have highlighted the feminine principle in emergent Christianity had ecclesiastical history not unfolded as a patriarchal trope:
"The royal bloodline of Jesus Christ is the source of the most enduring legend of all time--the Holy Grail. Magdalene's story has been shouted from the rooftops for centuries in all kinds of metaphors and languages. The story is evdrywhere once you open your eyes. . . ."
...