The Da Vinci Code Chapter 74 Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • While Teabing's in the back, Langdon takes the opportunity to confront Sophie about what she saw that drove her away from her grandfather.
  • He's put two and two together, and tells her he figured out she probably saw a sex rite. Maybe Saunière wanted Sophie to find him so he could explain to her what she saw that day.
  • It's a rite called Hieros Gamos. In Greek it means sacred marriage. It originated in Egypt. Long story made short: the moment of sexual climax was supposedly the only time a man could see God—via the sacred feminine.
  • Langdon is trying to reassure Sophie that what she saw wasn't some perversion. It was a sacred ritual.
  • The Church was the one who made sex into something disgusting and sinful. Before Christianity, sex was sacred.
  • Langdon can't seem to educate anyone without having a flashback to one of his lectures. He'd recently lectured on Hieros Gamos to his class earlier this semester.
  • Sophie tells Langdon everything she saw—which would definitely have been pretty disturbing if you didn't know the context.