<P> Psychologists Emma Jung and Marie - Louise von Franz used analytical psychology to interpret the Grail as a series of symbols in their book The Grail Legend . This expanded on interpretations by Carl Jung, which were later invoked by Joseph Campbell . </P> <P> In 2016, Goulven Peron suggested that the Holy Grail may reflect the horn of the river - god Achelous as described by Ovid in the Metamorphoses . </P> <P> The Grail legend was incorporated with the "Priory of Sion" hoax and popularised in the 1982 Holy Blood, Holy Grail . The narrative developed here is that Jesus survived the cross to father children with Mary Magdalene whose descendants founded the Merovingian dynasty . The "Grail" is taken as a reference to Mary Magdalene and the Merovingian lineage as the "receptacle" of Jesus' bloodline (playing on the sang real etymology). </P> <P> In The Sign and the Seal (1992), Graham Hancock asserts that the Grail story is a coded description of the Ark of the Covenant . </P>

Where did the story of the holy grail come from