Apples and Their Role In Time
The apple may be one of the most talked about fruits throughout time - both in mythological and historical terms
. Whether people meant apple when writing about apples is another question as many used the term apple' as a generic term for any and all fruit other than berries. Apple may have even been used to discuss tomatoes or potatoes.
According to ethnobotanical and ethnomycological scholars, the term apple was even used as a symbolic substitution for the entheogenic Amanita muscaria (or fly agaric) mushroom. Its association with knowledge is an allusion to the revelatory states described by some shamans and users of psychedelic mushrooms.
Throughout time, artists have used the apple for metaphor and direct symbolism. The apple was a metaphor for love, sexuality, sin and much more.
In literature, the apple was considered the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.
In Latin, the words for 'apple' ("mlum") and for 'evil' ("malum") are nearly identical which could be the reason it is often interpreted as the forbidden fruit. In line with the Garden of Eden Apple, we also have the Adam's apple, the bulge in a man's throat. This term came about with the thought that the fruit stuck in Adams throat upon eating it.
Bibilical artists loved using the apple as well in portraying ideas of sin and redemption. The apple was used to show the fall of man but then was later painted within the hands of Christ to portray the Second Adam, who brought life.
In Greek Mythology the apple is used, especially the golden apple. The golden apple is mentioned in Greek Mythology as an influence for all who ate it in the Garden of Hesperides. The Greek hero Heracles, as a part of his Twelve Labors, was required to travel to the Garden of the Hesperides and pick the golden apples off the Tree of Life growing at its center.
Eris, the Greek goddess of discord, became disgruntled after she was excluded from the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. In retaliation, she tossed a golden apple inscribed Kallisti ('For the most beautiful one'), into the wedding party. Three goddesses claimed the apple: Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. Paris of Troy was appointed to select the recipient. After being bribed by both Hera and Athena, Aphrodite tempted him with the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta. He awarded the apple to Aphrodite, thus indirectly causing the Trojan War.
Apples have evolved down into fairy tales and folklore as well. There is of course the story of Snow White and the poisonous apple. In Irish folklore, an apple is peeled into one continuous piece and thrown over a woman's shoulder, the shape it lands on shows her future husband's initials.
Apples and apple trees have been around seemingly forever. Some say they originated in eastern Turkey and archeologists have found evidence of apple trees in the earliest cultivated gardens.
By the 1850s there were over 500 recognized apple varieties in North America, including such current favorites as the McIntosh and Jonathan.
While we don't eat apples like our ancestors, the apple still holds a mystique for us. It is most likely the apple and the idea of the apple will be around for a very long time.
Apples and Their Role In Time
By: Andrew Johnson
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