Apple of Discord
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An apple of discord is a reference to the Golden Apple of Discord which, according to Greek mythology, the goddess Eris (Gr. Ερις, "Strife") said would go "to the fairest" at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, sparking a vanity-fueled dispute between Hera, Athena and Aphrodite that eventually led to the Trojan War (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.
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[edit] Derivative Uses
Because of this, the Roman goddess corresponding to the Greek Eris was named "Discordia". Also, in German and in Dutch, the words are used 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 Eixample district of Barcelona 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 Modernisme architecture: Antoni Gaudí's Casa Batlló, Lluís Domènech i Montaner's Casa Lleó Morera and Josep Puig i Cadafalch's Casa Amatller.
[edit] Kallisti
[edit] Etymology
Kallisti is the word from the Greek language inscribed on the Golden Apple of Discord by Eris, meaning "for the fairest" or "to the prettiest".
In ancient Greek, the word is καλλίστῃ, "kallistē(i)", (the dative singular of the feminine superlative of καλός, beautiful). In modern Greek it is καλλίστη, "kallisti", and in Latin it is pulcherrimae.
[edit] Discordianism
The word Kallisti has become a principal symbol of Discordianism, a modern religion. In non-philological texts (such as Discordian ones) the word is usually spelled as καλλιστι. Most versions of Principia Discordia actually spell it as καλλιχτι, but this is definitely incorrect; in the afterword of the 1979 Loompanics edition of Principia, Gregory Hill says that was because on the IBM typewriter he used, not all Greek letters coincided with Latin ones, and he didn't know enough of the letters to spot the mistake.
[edit] Other uses
- Kallisti (Καλλίστη) is also an ancient name of Santorini.
[edit] Pop Culture
In the Cartoon Network show The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Eris and her golden apple (oftentimes shown with a capital K inscribed) are the topic of several episodes.
