When Aedon discovered this was indeed her sister, she chopped up Polytekhnos's son and fed him to Polytekhnos. He then disguised her as a slave, presenting her to Aedon. But Polytekhnos was not happy by his defeat, so he came to Khelidon, Aedon's sister, and raped her. Eris said to them, 'Whosoever finishes thine task last shall have to present the other with a female servant!' Aedon won. Polytekhnos was finishing off a chariot board, and Aedon a web she had been weaving. This angered Hera, so she sent Eris to wreak discord upon them.

They claimed to love each other more than Hera and Zeus were in love. Īnother story of Eris includes Hera, and the love of Polytekhnos and Aedon. While Greek culture placed a greater emphasis on prowess and power, Paris chose to award the apple to Aphrodite, thereby dooming his city, which was destroyed in the war that ensued.Įris is also mentioned in Nonnus's Dionysiaca, when Typhon prepares to battle with Zeus:Įris ('Strife') was Typhon's escort in the mellay, Nike ('Victory') led Zeus into battle. Hera offered political power Athena promised infinite wisdom and Aphrodite tempted him with the most beautiful woman in the world: Helen, wife of Menelaus of Sparta. The goddesses stripped naked to try to win Paris's decision, and also attempted to bribe him. The hapless Paris, Prince of Troy, was appointed to select the fairest by Zeus. She therefore (as mentioned at the Kypria according to Proclus as part of a plan hatched by Zeus and Themis) tossed into the party the Apple of Discord, a golden apple inscribed Ancient Greek: τῇ καλλίστῃ, romanized: tē(i) kallistē(i) – 'For the most beautiful one', or 'To the Fairest One' – provoking the goddesses to begin quarreling about the appropriate recipient. The goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite had been invited along with the rest of Olympus to the forced wedding of Peleus and Thetis, who would become the parents of Achilles, but Eris had been snubbed because of her troublemaking inclinations. The most famous tale of Eris recounts her initiating the Trojan War by causing the Judgement of Paris. She also has a son whom she named Strife.Įnyo is mentioned in Book 5, and Zeus sends Strife to rouse the Achaeans in Book 11, of the same work. She it was that now cast evil strife into their midst as she fared through the throng, making the groanings of men to wax. and Discord that rageth incessantly, sister and comrade of man-slaying Ares she at the first rears her crest but little, yet thereafter planteth her head in heaven, while her feet tread on earth. The other Eris is presumably she who appears in Homer's Iliad Book IV equated with Enyo as sister of Ares and so presumably daughter of Zeus and Hera: Neikea ('Quarrels'), Pseudea ('Lies'), Logoi ('Stories'), Amphillogiai ('Disputes')ĭysnomia ('Misrule') and Ate ('Ruin'), near one another,Īnd Horkos ('Oath'), who most afflicts men on earth,

Hysminai ('Battles'), Makhai ('Wars'), Phonoi ('Murders'), and Androktasiai ('Manslaughters') Lethe ('Forgetfulness') and Limos ('Starvation') and the tearful Algea ('Pains'), In Hesiod's Theogony (226–232), Eris, the daughter of Night, is less kindly spoken of as she brings forth other personifications as her children:Īnd hateful Eris bore painful Ponos ('Hardship'), And potter is angry with potter, and craftsman with craftsman and beggar is jealous of beggar, and minstrel of minstrel. She stirs up even the shiftless to toil for a man grows eager to work when he considers his neighbour, a rich man who hastens to plough and plant and put his house in good order and neighbour vies with his neighbour as he hurries after wealth. ( Nyx), and the son of Cronus who sits above and dwells in the aether, set her in the roots of the earth: and she is far kinder to men. For one fosters evil war and battle, being cruel: her no man loves but perforce, through the will of the deathless gods, men pay harsh Strife her honour due. As for the one, a man would praise her when he came to understand her but the other is blameworthy: and they are wholly different in nature. So, after all, there was not one kind of Strife alone, but all over the earth there are two.

Strife define