the holy grail..a dish..a plate..or a cup? nobody knows...
In Christian mythology, the Holy Grail was the dish, plate, cup or vessel that caught Jesus' blood during his crucifixion. It was said to have the power to heal all wounds. A theme joined to the Christianised Arthurian mythos relates to the quest for the Holy Grail. The legend may be a combination of genuine Christian lore with a Celtic myth of a cauldron endowed with special powers. Whether graal is Celtic or Old French, it never refers to any cup or bowl but this. Though some Christian revisionists insist that the Holy Grail is not to be confused with the Holy Chalice, the vessel which Jesus used at the Last Supper to serve the wine, this has been the historical practice; various vessels have been put forward as the Last Supper chalice.
Various notions of the Holy Grail are currently very widespread in Western Society (especially British and American), popularized through numerous medieval and modern works (see below) and linked with the predominantly Anglo-French (but also with some German influence) cycle of stories about King Arthur and his knights. Because of this wide distribution most Americans and West Europeans assume that the Grail idea is universally well known.
The stories of the Grail are totally absent from Eastern Orthodox teachings and are not a part of the culture and mythos of those countries that were and are Orthodox (Orthodox Arabs, Orthodox Slavs, Orthodox Romanians, Orthodox Greeks). This is even more true of the Arthurian myths which were not well known (until the present day Hollywood retellings) east of Germany. The notions of the Grail, its importance, and prominance are, and should always be regarded as, a set of ideas that are essentially local and particular, being linked with Catholic or formerly Catholic locales, Celtic mythology, and Anglo-French medieval storytelling. The contemporary wide distribution of these ideas is due to the huge influence of the pop culture of countries where the Grail Myth was prominent in the Middle Ages.
The tale of the Fisher King involves a king who is lame in one leg (a euphemism for impotency) which in turn causes the land to become barren (infertile). The hero (Gawain, Percival, or Galahad) encounters the Fisher King and is invited to a feast, as per the older other world tales. The Grail is again presented as a platter of plenty but is also presented as part of a series of mystical relics, which also included a spear that drips blood and a broken sword. The purpose of the relics is to incite the hero to question them and thereby, through some unknown means, break the enchantment of the infirmed king and the barren land, although the hero invariably fails to do so.
The origins of the Grail can be traced back to early Celtic lore involving a hero/traveller who finds himself within an "other world", one that is on a magical plane parallel to ours. The transition from one world to another is usually described subtly, such as an unnoticeable and gradual change in the scenery. The role of the Grail was simply as a platter, or dish, that would never go empty and be presented to signify the mystical nature of the other world.
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