Golden Apple

Help me in my Jedi training as I confront Volkswagen's threats to Planet Earth

'The connection of the apple tree with immortality is both ancient and widespread'.

'Mr. Lewis Spence ,The Minor Traditions of British Mythology, tells us that the common apple tree reached Greece from the North. It was adopted by the Greek sun-god as especially sacred to him, and from the Celtic word 'Abal' an apple, the god derived his name Apollo. Avalon, Avallach and Avalloch are Celtic variations of the same word........ [Rhys, Arthurian Legend]

In Norse legend the food of immortality of the gods in Asgard was the apple. The Apple of the Hesperides....fruit of which Hercules and Perseus, son of Danae of the Brazen Tower, went in quest......

The eleventh of Hercules' Twelve Labours was to fetch the golden apples of the Hesperides. The poet Virgil tells how when Aeneas escaped from Troy to Italy, the Sibyl told him that the only means of entering and returning safely from the underworld was to carry the fruit of the golden bough. In accordance with the cult of the goddess Diana at Nemi most authorities agree it is likely that the golden bough was an apple - branch.

The adventures of Jason and the Argonauts and their search for the Golden Fleece would appear to be yet another legend concerning a heroic quest for a golden apple. The Greek word for sheep - 'melon'- can also mean apple. 'The Golden Fleece' could also mean 'The Golden Apple.' The adventures of Jason in Colchis are seen to be almost identical with that of Hercules in the Hesperides and also with that of Siegfried. All three fight a serpent dragon. The prize a golden treasure.

'The 'Echtra Condla'.. Irish...tells how Connla, the son of a king in the 2nd century AD is invited by a beautiful and immortal woman to the land of heart's desire. At the command of his father the king, the Druids do all in their power to prevent the prince from following the woman, who is invisible to all but Connla. She tells him she is of the people who dwell in the mounds of the 'Sidhe' and gives him an apple. He eats; it never grows less, nor does he require other food. After a month she returns to fetch Connla in her boat of glass. He goes with her to another world, to an Elysian 'Sidhe' Isle. It is interesting to note the connection between the apple and the boat of glass. [Celtic and Scandinavian Religions, Rev. J. A. MacCulloch]

In the books which exposed the Illuminatus conspiracy a Golden Apple is reported to have been the symbol of the anti- Illuminatus 'Legion of Dynamic Discord'. Inspired by the famous Apple of Discord, which Paris had to allot to one of the three goddesses, and this is echoed in Malory's account of how Lancelot fell asleep under an apple-tree.

Odin hears the Prayers of King Rerir and his wife for a daughter. The goddess Freya gives an apple to a casket bearing maiden. The maid 'took the apple, and did put on the gear of a crow, and went flying till she came where the king sat on a mound, and there she let the apple fall into the lap of the king'. 'The Volksung Saga'...[trans. from Icelandic by Eirikur Magnusson and William Morris.]

Merlin ( Myrddin) in early welsh poetry is repeatedly linked with apples and apple-trees.

'Afallenau' - 'Apple trees' describes how Merlin sleeps in or under an apple tree in the Caledon forest.

The poet Virgil tells how when Aeneas escaped from Troy to Italy, the Sibyl told him that the only means of entering and returning safely from the underworld was to carry the fruit of the golden bough. In accordance with the cult of the goddess Diana at Nemi most authorities agree it is likely that the golden bough was an apple - branch

THE APPLE OF DISCORD

It seems that Zeus was preparing a wedding banquet for Peleus and Thetis and did not want to invite Eris because of Her reputation as a trouble maker.*

This made Eris angry, and so She fashioned an apple of pure gold** and inscribed upon it KALLISTI ("To The Prettiest One") and on the day of the fete She rolled it into the banquet hall and then left to be alone and joyously partake of a hot dog.

Now, three of the invited goddesses,*** Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite, each immediately claimed it to belong to herself because of the inscription. And they started fighting, and they started throwing punch all over the place and everything.

Finally Zeus calmed things down and declared that an arbitrator must be selected, which was a reasonable suggestion, and all agreed. He sent them to a shepherd of Troy, whose name was Paris because his mother had had a lot of gaul and had married a Frenchman; but each of the sneaky goddesses tried to outwit the others by going early and offering a bribe to Paris.

Athena offered him Heroic War Victories, Hera offered him Great Wealth, and Aphrodite offered him the Most Beautiful Woman on Earth. Being a healthy young Trojan lad, Paris promptly accepted Aphrodite's bribe and she got the apple and he got screwed. As she had promised, she manoeuvred earthly happenings so that Paris could have Helen (The Helen) then living with her husband Menelaus, King of Sparta. Anyway, everyone knows that the Trojan War followed when Sparta demanded their Queen back and that the Trojan War is said to be The First War among men.

And so we suffer because of the Original Snub.

And so a Discordian is to partake of No Hot Dog Buns.

Do you believe that?

* This is called THE DOCTRINE OF THE ORIGINAL SNUB

** There is historic disagreement concerning whether this apple was of metalic gold or Acapulco.

*** Actually there were five goddesses, but the Greeks did not know the Law of Fives.

-- PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA