From: magentashadow@webtv.net   
      
   NAME: Eris, "the Lady of Sorrow," "defender of the people," (Homer)   
   known by the Romans as Discordia.   
      
   SYMBOLS: A golden apple of immortality with Kallisti "to the fairest" or   
   "to the prettiest") written on it.   
      
   USUAL IMAGE: Usually depicted as a beautiful young woman, who on looking   
   closer is shown to have corpse pale skin, hair bedecked with thorns and   
   wearing a garland that from the distance seems floral but is really a   
   poisonous snake. Was also said to become larger while close to battles.   
      
   AREA OF INFLUENCE: Originally strife, lately Chaos, but in a good way.   
      
   HOLY BOOKS: Theogony of Hesiod, The Iliad, The The Principia Discordia.   
      
   HOLY DAYS: None   
      
   RELATIVES: Chaos (grand parent), Nyx (Mother), no father, Gaia (Aunt),   
   Erebus `Darkness´ (Uncle), Apate, goddess of deceit, Geras goddess of   
   old age, Philotes goddess of affection, Nemesis, goddess of vengeance,   
   the Keres, the Fates (sisters), Thanatos, god of death, Hypnos, god of   
   sleep, Momus, god of writers, critics, sarcasm & I would assume these   
   days Blogsters (brothers), Horkos god of oaths (son `with Ares?´),   
   (Morpheus (nephew.) Ares (consort.)   
      
   I have to say however that Saturnalia supper over at "the gloomy house   
   of Nyx" had to have been one interesting affair!   
      
   Later accounts give her mother & father as Hera and Zeus, I think this   
   can be discounted as a much later addition.   
      
   SYNODEITIES: Discordia (Roman, who though later said to be one and the   
   same as Eris was at first another Goddess altogether), The Morrigan   
   (Celtic), Loki (Norse), Kali (Hinduism), Seth (Egyptian), Lucifer   
   (Christianity.)   
      
   DETAILS: The Greek goddess Eris was original a vary minor goddess about   
   whom little is known.   
      
   Most of our knowledge about her comes from Hesiod, where we learn there   
   were two Erises (Erisi?) one bad and one not so bad, and Homer's Iliad,   
   where we are told that Eris, the goddess of strife, was one of the few   
   deities not invited to come to Boeotia (Cow-Land) to witness the   
   marriage of the human Cadmus, former slave on Olympus for eight years   
   for having killed one of the giant serpents of Gaia, to the Goddess   
   Harmony. (apparently as a reward for being a really good suck up to   
   Zeus)   
      
   All the gods & goddesses were at this wedding, save for Eris, who they   
   thought an inauspicious personage to invite to a wedding, though a bit   
   unfair I would say as they did invite Ares, hardly the best house guest.   
      
   Hearing of it anyway Eris crashed the party and rolled one of the golden   
   apples of immortality into the middle of it marked with the word   
   Kallisti meaning ether "for the fairest" or "for the prettiest."   
      
   This led to a dispute between the Goddesses Aphrodite, Athene & Hera   
   about who should have it. (you would think Athene would have better   
   sense) which led to the human Paris, who apparently had never been   
   introduced to the concept of cutting an apple into sections, being   
   called in as the sucker to settle the dispute, which led to the Trojan   
   War.   
      
   The whole moral of which seems to have been sometimes practical jokes   
   just go too damn far.   
   There is not much else heard from Eris, though we are told that like the   
   Celtic goddess The Morrigan that while she doesn't take part in battles   
   herself, she does revel in them and during some may grow larger in size   
   as she becomes more excited.   
      
   However I suspect that there may be sometime been more to Eris than   
   this. For one thing while Homer goes to a great deal of trouble to paint   
   her in the harshest colors, he (whoever he or they were that ended up   
   being called Homer) also at one point refers to Eris as "the defender of   
   the people."   
      
   I suspect that it may be that the much later Homer is letting the lore   
   about an earlier Eris slip in. I think this may show that perhaps she is   
   another Greek triple Goddess, with her "sisters" Philotes, goddess of   
   affection, & Nemesis shape-shifting goddess of vengeance.   
      
   However as so much of the shifting beliefs of that time are lost, I   
   doubt that could ever be proven. So we are left with the golden apple   
   story.   
      
   Until that is the year 1958 or 59 when Greg Hill & Kerry Thornley   
   brought her into the 20th century with the Principia Discordia. which   
   led to The Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson,   
   which led to many thousands of people starting to call themselves ether   
   Discordians or Erisians and acting accordingly.   
      
   Restating, it would seem, the same moral we got from the Iliad above.   
      
   And Eris, having been brought back, refuses to go away, still showing up   
   on such venues as a cute `goth´ on the television series Xena Warrior   
   Princess, (where they insisted on just calling Her Discord), as the foe   
   of Sinbad in a cartoon where she is voiced by Michelle Pfeiffer, to a   
   stint as a villaness in the Wonder Woman comic in the 80's & 90's, to   
   now where Eris is depicted as a British accented blonde, with a David   
   Letterman gap in her teeth, & wearing a midriff revealing toga on the   
   Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy on the Cartoon Network (based, I am   
   informed by Wikipedia, on Madonna).   
      
   Showing that you might as well send her an invitation because she´s   
   coming anyway.   
      
   As Greg Hill is reported to have said, "If I had known it was all going   
   to come true I would have picked Venus."   
      
      
   For images and links go to:   
      
   Eris   
      
   http://community-2.webtv.net/Toomuwik/Eris/index.html   
      
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)