Asfa Siddiqui
Factoid Paper In Dan Brown’s novel the Da Vinci Code, he mentions Baphomet. Baphomet in the novel is said to be a pagan fertility god that was associated with reproduction. His head was said to be that of a ram or goat, which is said to be a common symbol of procreation and fertility. Brown also states that the Templars honored Baphomet by encircling a stone replica of his head and chanting prayers. In the novel, A poem is retrieved and is said to refer to Baphomet “A headstone praised by Templars”. This poem is then used to decipher the code on a cryptex. The characters of the novel then use the Atbash Cipher to decode Baphomet into Sofia. When researching Baphomet it was determined that most of what Dan Brown wrote is not supported by others. During the trials of the Templars, one charge was that they worshipped the idol Baphomet. The inquisitors accepted this because they had heard of the rumors and assumed them to be true. It should also be noted that the inquisitors would use torture to get information out of people and the information gained from their sources cannot be seen as the incontrovertible truth and was therefore rescinded. The rumor of Baphomet is said to have stemmed from a poor understanding of Islam in the Middle Ages. People thought that Muslims worshipped many gods among them were Apollo and Baphomet. It is generally accepted that Baphomet is a misrepresentation of the name Muhammad. There was also no evidence to show that Baphomet was the name of an ancient fertility god. In 1854, Eliphas Levi published Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (Dogmas and Rituals of High Magic) where he included an image he drew himself which he described as Baphomet and “The Sabbatic Goat”. Levi drew Baphomet as a winged human goat with a pair of breasts and a torch on his head between two horns. This image has become to be the best representation of Baphomet. Other sources say the description of Baphomet ranged from the head of a bearded man which may come from a description of Muhammad to a figure called Yalla, which may come from the arabic word for god. In church texts, Baphomet is depicted as a goats