The Grail Bearer (with the Grail depicted as a Ciborium)
Allegories of the Holy Grail
"The Grail may be described as the dish from which Christ ate the Passover lamb at the Last Supper; or as the chalice of the first sacrament, in which later the savior's blood was caught as it flowed from His wounded body; or as a stone with miraculous feeding and youth-preserving virtues; or as a salver containing a man's head, swimming in blood. It may be borne through a castle hall by a beautiful damsel; or it may float through the air in Arthur's palace, veiled in white samite; or it may be placed on a table in the East, together with a freshly caught fish, and serve as a talisman to distinguish the chaste from the unchaste. Its custodian may be called Bron or Anfortas or Pelles or Joseph of Arimathea or simply 'the Fisher King'. He may be sound of wind and limb or pierced through the thighs or wounded in the genitals. The hero who achieves the quest may be the notoriously amorous Gawain or the virgin Galahad."
- Roger Sherman Loomis, The Grail, From Celtic Myth to Christian Symbol
Hyperlinks
|
