Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia

The Château of Angers, you'll recall, houses the Apocalypse Tapestry, which features The Beast, whose number is thought by some to be 666.

Fear of the number 666 is called hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia. In the US, there was so much hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia that Route 666 (Arizona-New Mexico) was recently renamed Route 491 (in Hebrew gematria, 491 comes out as 'Homer Simpson'). The English A666, meanwhile, is in Lancashire, and runs from Langho to Pendlebury. Spookily, Pendlebury is not a million miles from Wigan, which is twinned with Angers! Wigan is the headquarters of Heinz Foods, and the Number of the Beans is 57.

The Whore of Babylon rides a seven-headed beast, and on her forehead is written (according to The Book of Revelations) "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth" - which is one hell of a tattoo. Ian Paisley MP frequently alludes to Ms Babylon, and has claimed that seat number 666 in the European Parliament in Strasbourg is reserved for The Antichrist. It was never a popular seat.

Others claim that the Statue of Liberty in New York is modelled on Ms Babylon. If you've been paying attention to these blogs (and I know I haven't) you'll remember that the statue was sculpted by Frédéric Bartholdi (see our Alsace blog), who modelled the face on his mother and the body on his mistress - but let's not let historical fact stand in the way of a good conspiracy theory: 1) the statue represents the Roman goddess Libertas, who was sort-of related to the Babylonian godess Ishtar 2) the Whore "sits upon many waters" (Revelation 17:1) i.e. New York harbour 3) the US occupy Baghdad, historical capital of Babylon.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, the Western Loire...


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