The Apple of Discord and the Trojan War

The Apple of Discord and the Trojan War

The Judgement of Paris is a story from Greek mythology, which was one of the events that led up to the Trojan War and, in later versions via Aeneas, to the foundation of Rome. The story has many versions[1] (Atsma 2017) but, basically, it goes as follows. It is recounted (Kerényi 1959) that Zeus held a banquet in celebration of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, the parents of Achilles. However, Eris, goddess of discord was not invited, for it was believed she would have made the party unpleasant for everyone. Angered by this snub, Eris arrived at the celebration with a golden apple from the Garden of the Hesperides, which she threw into the proceedings as a prize of beauty[2].

According to some later versions, upon the apple was the inscription καλλίστῃ (kallistē_i, ‘to the most beautiful’ or ‘to the fairest’)[3] [4]. Three goddesses claimed the apple: Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, i.e., the house, the olive tree and the sand. They asked Zeus to judge which of them was most beautiful, the fairest, or the optimal. Eventually, he, reluctant to favour any claim himself, declared that Paris, a Trojan mortal, son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy, would judge their cases, for he had previously shown his exemplary fairness. Thus, it happened that, with Hermes as their guide, the three candidates bathed in the spring of Ida, then confronted Paris on Mount Ida in the climactic moment that is the crux of the tale. After failing to judge their beauty with their clothing on, the three goddesses stripped nude to convince Paris of their worthiness. While Paris inspected them, each attempted with her powers to bribe him; Hera offered to make him king of Europe and Asia, Athena offered wisdom and skill in war, and Aphrodite, who had the Charites and the Horai to enhance her charms with flowers and song (according to a fragment of the Cypria[5] quoted by Athenagoras of Athens), offered the world's most beautiful woman[6]. This was Helen of Sparta, wife of the Greek king Menelaus. Paris accepted Aphrodite's gift and awarded the apple to her, receiving Helen as well as the enmity of the Greeks and especially of Hera. The Greeks' expedition to retrieve Helen from Paris in Troy is the mythological basis of the Trojan War.

References

Atsma, Aaron J. 2017. “Judgement of Paris.” Theoi Project. Theoi. Com. 2017. https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/JudgementParis.html.

Kerényi, Karl. 1959. The Heroes of the Greeks. Translated by H J Rose. Myth and Man. London: Thames and Hudson.

 

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[1] ‘The judgement of Paris’ at Theoi.Com; accessed 28^th September 2018. http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/JudgementParis.html

[2] Apollod. Epit. e.3.2.

[3] Hyginus, Fabulae 92.

[4] Kallistēi is an Ancient Greek word inscribed on the Golden Apple of Discord by Eris. In Greek, the word is καλλίστῃ (the dative singular of the feminine superlative of καλος, beautiful). Its meaning can be rendered ‘to the fairest one’. Calliste (Καλλίστη; Mod. Gk. Kallisti) is also an ancient name for the isle of Thera. Undoubtedly, Thera is a beautiful island, but in the Bronze Age, it was perhaps also the stop-over place with the fairest prices for ship supplies and ‘refuelling’.

[5] A lost work of the Epic Cycle, of which only fragments remain. A readable summary can be found in found in English translation in Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns and Homerica trans. by Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1914).

[6] Euripides, Andromache, l. 284, Helena l. 676.

Summary

The Iliad is a poem about market laws. The Trojan War is a war against decay and waste (Troy means gnawing). Peleus is the clay. Thetis (or Metis) means mixing. Achilles is the trowel. Achilles’ heel is the joint between the blade and the handle of the trowel; the point where the tool usually breaks. Patroclus is the plaster; sticking matter (denoted by the -clos ending) inserted between building stones. Agamemnon is the metallurgist (class). Catreus is the hidden resources/stocks; the character represents the behavior of some merchants leading to artificial inflation of the market price. The English word cat is a cognate of Catreus; the animal is named after its characteristic behavior to hide its excrements.

Paris is the price stick, the price in general. Helen of Sparta is the timing of public water supply restrictions; the idea of timing was ‘stolen’ by the workers and the merchants; hence, Helen of Sparta became Helen of Troy (work and market timing). Helen of Troy is the work-hours, the market opening times; it represents a standardization of the work value, the salary; this concept should provide for just pricing of products.

Atreus is the rasp. Mycenae means small particles such as sparkles of fire, raspings, or sawdust. Achaeans means noise-makers and represents the knocking artisans such as the smiths and carpenters. Danaans are the public transport and distribution networks and the related workers. Argives are the stockers, wholesalers; they have deposits of goods. In Homer, the word ship is frequently, if not always, used for container.

Hellas, the Greek name of Greece, means brush, and Hellenes are the painters. Myrmidons are the masons. The Trojan horse is the barrel. Skyros is the concrete. Lemnos is economic inactivity, stagnation, financial sanctions. Neoptolemus is the theft. Calchas is the weather cone (the ancient meteorologist and his weather predictions). Priam means purchase; he was killed by Neoptolemus, the theft. Hecuba is the storing (she never died). Philoctetes is the irrational consumer, over-consumption. The couple Hector and Andromache stands for measures and weights. Cassandra and Helenus stand for the pan-balance and the standard counterweight, respectively. Astyanax is an evolved type of portable balance. Scamander is the mixing bowl, the balance pan or similar wide-lipped container.

Deiphobus represents the market-price inflation, the cut-downs, and the austerity policies imposed as consequences of over-consumption (Philoctetes).

The myth of the Apple of Discord refers to ‘gold standards’, and how to fix them; these are the just levels in terms of market economy.