Food For Thoughts: Apples

Apples are special in the mythology of the Western World as they carry a very rich tradition of all kinds of symbolism, according to culture, history and time periods. As far as I can see, they started out as symbols of love and fertility, beauty and wisdom. However, the original concept of them was corrupted by that Biblical story of sin and temptation, as well as a postulate of a certain kind of female disobedience to a male principle, which to me looks like the main part of that story. Yup, "everything is the fault of Eve, who was seduced by that devious snake to eat the forbidden fruit": Typical for a male god, like e.g. Yahweh. 

No doubt about it, apples are tasty and fruity in themselves, and they don't really need to be turned into symbols, but they were, even before that silly Biblical story of Eve and the snake. In Greek mythology, the apple holds a crucial symbolic value in the myth of the super-handsome Trojan prince, Paris, who was chosen by Zeus to resolve a conflict between three goddesses, Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. Because the goddess of discord, Eris, wasn't asked to attend the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, she threw a golden apple, which was inscribed "to the fairest", into the crowd, thus giving rise to a fierce dispute between Hera, Athena and Aphrodite.

Actually, I suspect that Prince Paris may have been the fairest at that party, but each to his or her taste. All the goddesses promised Paris a lot of wonderful rewards for choosing them, but when Aphrodite promised him "the most beautiful woman on Earth", who was Helen of Sparta, he gave her the golden apple. Because of that ill-begotten promise, Helen was abducted, which was the cause of the Trojan War.

Yes, some men really have apples in front of their faces, but it takes a painter like e.g. Rene Magritte to see that. As it is it also takes a special idea of the apple symbolism, which in my opinion is interesting, but not quite clear: Is the apple - and the hat - a challenge to the everyday perception of people or a comment on the burgeoisie ideologies, e.g. of "sin"? I find it intriguing, but not quite understandable which is part of its allurement: Apples are not only for fun, they are also provocative. 

https://humakabakci.substack.com/p/apple-food-symbolism-in-history-of?utm_medium=web 

 

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Wikipedia