During his stay in France, Robert Langdon is taken by the police to the Louvre Museum: his name had been written on the ground near the body of the recently deceased curator. On his arrival, he discusses with a police officer the history of the pyramid imagined by Ieoh Ming Pei in the courtyard of the museum: he talks about the “Pharaoh complex” of the French President François Mitterrand, who was personally involved in the renovation of the Louvre (Chapter 3). In the museum, Robert remembers that Saunière had assembled a large collection of objects linked to the ‘divine feminine’, including – for the Egyptian part – tjet ankhs resembling angels and sistra used to repel evil (Chapter 4). As a symbologist, Robert also had the opportunity to take an interest in ancient Egypt, particularly through the golden ratio (PHI) used for example in the construction of the pyramids (Chapter 20).

He also explains part of the mystery of the Mona Lisa thanks to Egyptian deities. He talks about Amon, god of fertility, and makes a quick connection between his function and the English slang ‘horny’; he also talks about his female counterpart Isis. He shows that the name of the painted lady is an anagram of the Egyptian deities Amon and Isis, whose hieroglyphic pictogram was called l’Isa. X-ray scans showed that the lady was originally painted wearing a lapis lazuli pendant of the Egyptian goddess (Chapter 40): AMON L’ISA becomes MONA LISA, and its androgynous nature came from the fusion of masculine and feminine (Chapter 26).

The goddess Isis is also quickly mentioned in the form of a bust placed on the mantel above a fireplace (Chapter 54), but also when Robert compares this ancient deity nursing her son Horus to the Virgin Mary figured holding Baby Jesus (Chapters 4 and 55); Robert finds another connection between the goddess and the Little Mermaid (Chapter 61). The Church of Saint-Sulpice were built over the ruins of an ancient Isis temple (Chapter 19) and in this building there is an Egyptian obelisk (as a part of the gnomon, Chapter 22).

Ancient Egypt appears again during a discussion between Robert and Sophie about magic spells (Chapter 72) and when the Harvard professor explains what a hierogamy is; he argues that the Egyptian priests and priestesses celebrated the union of bodies (Chapter 74). According to him, the Egyptian sun disks are the origin of the halos of Catholic saints (Chapter 55).

Author: Thomas Gamelin