WHAT IS the origin of "apple of discord"?
(J. Laxman, Chennai)
When you say that something is the "apple of discord" what you mean is that it is the cause of dispute. It's surprising how much trouble the apple has caused. Eating the forbidden fruit resulted in Adam and Eve being thrown out of Eden. A fight over an apple resulted in the fall of Troy.
According to the legend, when Thetis and Peleus got married, they invited all the Greek gods, except the god of Discord, Eris, to their wedding. Makes sense, doesn't it? Nobody wants a disagreement or a quarrel during a wedding. After the wedding, well that's a different matter. Anyway, Eris was pretty angry that she hadn't been invited to the wedding. So, what she did was to toss a golden apple among the guests. On the apple were written the words, "For the fairest".
Three goddesses, Hera, Athene, and Aphrodite fought for the apple because each believed that she was the fairest of them all. Since they didn't have a magic mirror, which could tell them who among them was the fairest, the three goddesses asked Paris, the son of the king of Troy, to decide the matter for them. And as it usually happens in such cases, the goddesses tried to bribe Paris; Hera promised him all of Asia, and Athene promised him glory in war.
And guess what Aphrodite offered him if he were to give her the apple? You guessed it. She promised him the most beautiful woman in the world; a woman whose face was capable of launching a thousand ships. Young Paris gave the apple to Aphrodite, and he got the beautiful Helen in return. Hera and Athene, as expected, were extremely angry with Paris and they plotted his ruin.
According to the legend it was the two goddesses that made sure that Troy was destroyed. Thousands of people were killed because of a silly apple!
S. Upendran
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