An
appleApples appear in many religious traditions, often as a mystical or forbidden fruit. One of the problems identifying apples in religion, mythology and folktales is that as late as the 17th century, the word "apple" was used as a generic term for all fruit other than berries, but including nuts...
of discord is a reference to the
Golden Apple of Discord which, according to
Greek mythologyGreek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
, the goddess
ErisEris is the Greek goddess of strife, her name being translated into Latin as Discordia. Her Greek opposite is Harmonia, whose Latin counterpart is Concordia. Homer equated her with the war-goddess Enyo, whose Roman counterpart is Bellona...
(
Gr.Greek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
Ερις, "Strife") said that she would give "to the fairest" at the wedding of
PeleusIn Greek mythology, Pēleús was a hero who was already known to Homer. Peleus was the son of Aeacus, king of the island of Aegina, and Endeïs, the oread of Mount Pelion in Thessaly; he became the father of Achilles...
and
ThetisSilver-footed Thetis , disposer or "placer" , is encountered in Greek mythology mostly as a sea nymph, one of the fifty Nereids, daughters of the ancient one of the seas with shape-shifting abilities who survives in the historical vestiges of most later Greek myths as Proteus Silver-footed Thetis...
, sparking a vanity-fueled dispute between
HeraIn the Olympian pantheon of classical Greek Mythology, Hera or Here was the wife and older sister of Zeus. Her chief function was as goddess of women and marriage. In Roman mythology, Juno was the equivalent mythical character. The cow, and later, the peacock were sacred to her...
,
AthenaIn Greek mythology, Athena is the goddess of wisdom, peace, warfare, strategy, handicrafts and reason, shrewd companion of heroes and the goddess of heroic endeavour...
and
AphroditeAphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty and raw sexuality. According to Greek poet Hesiod, she was born when Cronus cut off Ouranos's genitals and threw them into the sea, and from the aphros arose Aphrodite.Because of her beauty other gods feared that jealousy would interrupt the peace...
that eventually led to the
Trojan WarIn Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...
(for the complete story, see
The Judgement of Paris). Thus, "apple of discord" became a euphemism for the core, kernel, or crux of an argument, or for a small matter that could lead to a bigger dispute.
Derivative uses
Because of this, the Roman goddess corresponding to the Greek Eris was named "Discordia". Also, in
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
and in
DutchDutch is a West Germanic language spoken by over 22 million people as a native language, and over 5 million people as a second language.
"1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language...
, the words are used a lot more often colloquially than in English, though in German the colloquial form is not
Apfel der Zwietracht (lit. "Apple of Discord") but
Zankapfel ("Quarrel-apple") and rarely
Erisapfel - the Dutch is
Twistappel ("Strife-apple").
In the
EixampleThe Eixample is a district of Barcelona between the old city and what were once surrounding small towns , constructed in the 19th and early 20th centuries....
district of
BarcelonaBarcelona is the capital, most populous city of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia and the second largest city in Spain, with a population of 1,615,908 in 2008. It is the 11th-most populous municipality in the European Union and sixth-most populous urban area in the European Union after Paris,...
there is a block nicknamed in Spanish,
la manzana de la discordia,
manzana meaning both "apple" and "city block".
It was so named because it features three different interpretations of
ModernismeSee also: ModernismModernisme also known, in English, as Catalan modernism, was the Catalan equivalent to a number of fin-de-siècle art movements, such as Symbolism, Decadence and Art Nouveau / Jugendstil, from roughly 1888 to 1911...
architecture:
Antoni GaudíAntoni Plàcid Guillem Gaudí i Cornet – in English sometimes referred to by the Spanish translation of his name, Antonio Gaudí...
's
Casa BatllóCasa Batlló , is a building restored by Antoni Gaudí and Josep Maria Jujol, built in the year 1877 and remodelled in the years 1905–1907; located at 43, Passeig de Gràcia , part of the Illa de la Discòrdia in the Eixample district of Barcelona, Catalonia.The local name for the building is...
,
Lluís Domènech i MontanerLluís Domènech i Montaner was a Spanish Catalan architect who was highly influential on Modernisme català, the Catalan Art Nouveau / Jugendstil movement...
's
Casa Lleó MoreraThe Casa Lleó-Morera is a building designed by noted modernisme architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner, located at Passeig de Gràcia 35 in the Eixample district of Barcelona. The building is located on the corner with Carrer del Consell de Cent, and is one of the three important buildings of the Illa...
and
Josep Puig i CadafalchJosep Puig i Cadafalch was a Spanish Catalan Modernista architect who designed many significant buildings in Barcelona...
's
Casa AmatllerCasa Amatller is a building in the Modernisme style in Barcelona, designed by Josep Puig i Cadafalch. Along with Casa Batlló and Casa Lleó-Morera, it makes up the three most important buildings in Barcelona's famous Illa de la Discòrdia , noted for its unique modernist buildings.The building was...
.
"To the Fairest"
The word
ΚΑΛΛΊΣΤῌ ' onMouseout='HidePop("49116")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Greek_language">Modern Greek
Greek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
:
kallisti; "for/to the most beautiful") was inscribed on the Golden Apple of Discord by
ErisEris is the Greek goddess of strife, her name being translated into Latin as Discordia. Her Greek opposite is Harmonia, whose Latin counterpart is Concordia. Homer equated her with the war-goddess Enyo, whose Roman counterpart is Bellona...
.
Καλλίστῃ is the dative
singularIn linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
of the
feminineIn linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called noun classes, are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words; every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be very few which belong to several classes at once....
superlativeIn grammar the superlative of an adjective or adverb is the greatest form of adjective or adverb which indicates that something has some feature to a greater degree than anything it is being compared to in a given context...
of καλός,
beautifulBeauty is a characteristic of a person, animal, place, object, or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure, meaning, or satisfaction. Beauty is studied as part of aesthetics, sociology, social psychology, and culture. As a cultural creation, beauty has been extremely commercialized...
. In
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
sources, the word is PULCHERRIMÆ.
The word
Kallisti has become a principal symbol of the modern religion
DiscordianismDiscordianism is a modern religion centered on the idea that chaos is all that there is, and that disorder and order, the former considered a concept distinct from chaos, are both illusions that are imposed on chaos...
. In non-
philologicalPhilology considers both form and meaning in linguistic expression, combining linguistics and literary studies.Classical philology is the philology of the Greek, Latin and Sanskrit languages...
texts (such as Discordian ones) the word is usually spelled (via
back-translationTranslation is the interpreting of the meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an equivalent text, likewise called a "translation," that communicates the same message in another language...
) as
καλλιστι, while most versions of
Principia DiscordiaPrincipia Discordia is a Discordian religious text written by Greg Hill and Kerry Thornley . It was originally published under the title "Principia Discordia or How The West Was Lost" in a limited edition of 5 copies in 1965...
actually spell use
καλλιχτι. In the afterword of the 1979
LoompanicsLoompanics Unlimited was an American book seller and publisher specializing in nonfiction on generally unconventional or controversial topics, with a philosophy arguably tending to a mixture of libertarian and left wing ideals, although Loompanics carried books expressing other political viewpoints...
edition, the author Gregory Hill said that was because on his IBM typewriter not all
Greek lettersThe Greek alphabet is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is the first and oldest alphabet in the narrow sense that it notes each vowel and consonant with a separate symbol. It is as such in continuous use to...
coincided with
LatinThe Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, and was initially developed by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language.During the...
ones and he didn't know enough at the time to spot the mistake.
Since the wedding of Peleus and Thetis was held on Mount
PelionPelion or Pelium is a mountain at the southeastern part of Thessaly in central Greece, forming a hook-like peninsula between the Pagasetic Gulf and the Aegean Sea...
in
MagnesiaMagnesia , deriving from the tribe name Magnetes, is the name of the southeastern area of Thessaly in central Greece. The modern prefecture was created in 1947 out of the Larissa prefecture. About 70% of the population live in the Greater Volos area which is the second-largest city in Thessaly...
, the inscription would have been in the local
Cumae alphabetThe Cumae alphabet was a western variant of the early Greek alphabet, used between the 8th to 5th centuries BC. It was specifically used in Euboea and the areas west of Athens, especially in the Greek colonies of southern Italy. It was this variant that gave rise to the Old Italic alphabets,...
.
Nestor's CupThe term Cup of Nestor or Nestor's Cup can refer to:#A golden mixing cup, described in Homer's Iliad, belonging to Nestor, the king of Pylos....
provides a close example.
See also
- German Apple Front
The Front Deutscher Äpfel , also called Apfelfront is a satirical organisation, founded in Leipzig in 2004. It satirizes right extremist parties, especially the Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands...
- Golden apple
The golden apple is an element that appears in various national and ethnic folk legends or fairy tales. Recurring themes depict a hero retrieving the golden apples hidden or stolen by a monstrous antagonist...
- Judgement of Paris
- Polemic
Polemics is the practice of disputing or controverting significant, broad-reaching topics of magnitude such as religious, philosophical, political, or scientific matters...