The Big Apple
If it werent for that one fruit, we would still be strutting around naked and Gucci would be just another gurgling noise made by one of Adam & Eve's progeny.
A seemingly innocent fruit leading it's own life from conception to seed to flower to adulthood and then Kaput! All the world's evils placed on its tender shoulders to bear.
Just when i was feeling highly sorry for the Apple, i realised it isn't all that innocent either.
Did u think Adam & Eve were the only ones in trouble coz of it? Naah. Make that a big shake of the head. According to the Greek Myth, if it weren't for this fruit, there wouldn't be a Trojan War. I swear. It's true and you poor little thing thought it was all for Helen?
Well i know you can google for the Trojan War and find all this but hey, I LOVE Greek myth especially after seeing hot dude Brad as my fave Achilles (now did Achilles become my fave coz it was played by Brad...well that's for me to know and you to guess!)
Anyways, like i was saying, this chap Peleus got hitched to the sea goddess (also known as Nereid) Thetis (incidentally she is the mother of my hero Achilles) and the couple threw a fantabulous wedding banquest for the rich and famous...the red carpet was thrown for all the reigining and non-reigning deities except one little goddess Eris.
Now was that a wise thing to do?
No woman likes to be snubbed much less a goddess definitely.
You see Eris was the daughter Zeus and Hera - the goddess of Discord who accompanied her big bro Ares, the God of war into battle fields.
Her ego pricked, our lady gate-crashes into the party and throws a Golden Apple on the table saying only the fairest among them deities will get it.
Now one trick to make even the bestest of girl friends slightly compete with each other is to say only one of them beautiful. You can imagine the riot that ensued as the there was no love lost between the Olympian godessess.
Hera (Zeus' sister & consort), Aphrodite (Zeus' daughter & goddess of Love) and Athena (another daughter of Zeus & goddess of wisdom) all tried to claim the apple as their own. However ol' man Zeus intervened and declared Paris as the judge to avoid washing family linen in public...kind of paradoxical coz almost every other woman was his daughter if she wasn't his paramour. Modern day Casanovas need to learn a thing or two from him.
Anyways, the 3 women tried to woo Paris on their own. Hera promised power (how did she think Zeus would even allow it?), Athena wealth (to the King's son?!) and Aphrodite promised him the most beautiful woman in the world. (Aha, now you are talking a man's language!)
And as expected, Paris gave the apple to Aphrodite.
So where does Troy fit in here?
The most beautiful woman Aphrodite promised Paris was none other than Helen of Sparta, wife of Menelaus and as some legends insist, daughter of Zeus. (The story of her birth is another interesting anecdote but for another day).
Paris eloped with Helen and the destruction that followed Troy is on the silver screen for all to see.
Closer home we do have our own Godly feud for a single fruit, tho' not apple - Lord Muruga flying away in a huff to Pazhani when Shiva gave the fruit to Lord Ganesha. Ask your grandma for the details.
An apple a day...
A seemingly innocent fruit leading it's own life from conception to seed to flower to adulthood and then Kaput! All the world's evils placed on its tender shoulders to bear.
Just when i was feeling highly sorry for the Apple, i realised it isn't all that innocent either.
Did u think Adam & Eve were the only ones in trouble coz of it? Naah. Make that a big shake of the head. According to the Greek Myth, if it weren't for this fruit, there wouldn't be a Trojan War. I swear. It's true and you poor little thing thought it was all for Helen?
Well i know you can google for the Trojan War and find all this but hey, I LOVE Greek myth especially after seeing hot dude Brad as my fave Achilles (now did Achilles become my fave coz it was played by Brad...well that's for me to know and you to guess!)
Anyways, like i was saying, this chap Peleus got hitched to the sea goddess (also known as Nereid) Thetis (incidentally she is the mother of my hero Achilles) and the couple threw a fantabulous wedding banquest for the rich and famous...the red carpet was thrown for all the reigining and non-reigning deities except one little goddess Eris.
Now was that a wise thing to do?
No woman likes to be snubbed much less a goddess definitely.
You see Eris was the daughter Zeus and Hera - the goddess of Discord who accompanied her big bro Ares, the God of war into battle fields.
Her ego pricked, our lady gate-crashes into the party and throws a Golden Apple on the table saying only the fairest among them deities will get it.
Now one trick to make even the bestest of girl friends slightly compete with each other is to say only one of them beautiful. You can imagine the riot that ensued as the there was no love lost between the Olympian godessess.
Hera (Zeus' sister & consort), Aphrodite (Zeus' daughter & goddess of Love) and Athena (another daughter of Zeus & goddess of wisdom) all tried to claim the apple as their own. However ol' man Zeus intervened and declared Paris as the judge to avoid washing family linen in public...kind of paradoxical coz almost every other woman was his daughter if she wasn't his paramour. Modern day Casanovas need to learn a thing or two from him.
Anyways, the 3 women tried to woo Paris on their own. Hera promised power (how did she think Zeus would even allow it?), Athena wealth (to the King's son?!) and Aphrodite promised him the most beautiful woman in the world. (Aha, now you are talking a man's language!)
And as expected, Paris gave the apple to Aphrodite.
So where does Troy fit in here?
The most beautiful woman Aphrodite promised Paris was none other than Helen of Sparta, wife of Menelaus and as some legends insist, daughter of Zeus. (The story of her birth is another interesting anecdote but for another day).
Paris eloped with Helen and the destruction that followed Troy is on the silver screen for all to see.
Closer home we do have our own Godly feud for a single fruit, tho' not apple - Lord Muruga flying away in a huff to Pazhani when Shiva gave the fruit to Lord Ganesha. Ask your grandma for the details.
An apple a day...
posted by Kumari at 8:15 AM
4 Comments:
an apple a day keeps the doctor away.. with a bushel of apples, you can have a helluva good time with the doctor's wife!! :))))
come to think of it, i like apples. if it weren't for apples,we'd have no gravity!
Aha...ulterior motives behind gifting a naive doc with a bushel of apples :p
No apples, no gravity? Dat's funny...but i wonder what would we be having now if Newton had sat under a Jackfruit tree :-D
jus a doubt.. and one point u say she is the daughter of zeus and hera and at another point u say hera is the sister of ZEus... leaves me perplexed...
@Me: Valid doubt. Shall i answer it in another class of Greek Myth?
like say tom morn? :)
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