apple

it begins with the description of the perfect garden of eden, where adam and eve lived in a lush world—heaven, unaware with the distinction between good and evil. the story holds true in three main religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam—although varies slightly in details and interpretation. adam and eve continued to live with their ignorance; they had no shame, no guilt, no sin. they were naked all of the time and they have no idea of sexual pleasure. they lived blissfully, and one fine day, eve—followed by adam—ate the forbidden fruit of knowledge, the apple, and hell broke loose. they began to feel embarassed being naked in front of each other, and their mind were filled with ideas of guilt, shame, and humiliation. God condemned them for their disobedient and threw them to the earth. adam's apple, if we can simplify, is what makes human human today.

different story unfolds different revelation. around 1200 BC, king priam heard an oracle about his future son who would be the cause of the fall of his kingdom. terrified, he asked one of his guards to abandon his newly-born babyboy in the jungle. the guard pitied the baby and decided to raise him himself in his hut just off the jungle. he named the baby paris. paris grew up to be a very strong, handsome and attractive man without knowing the fact that he's a prince. one day, the god hermes appeared out of nowhere holding an apple. following him were three divine godesses: hera, athene, and aphrodite. hermes asked paris to choose which of the three godesses is the most beautiful, and to then give the apple to the chosen one. long story short, paris finally gave the apple to aphrodite, humiliating the two other godesses and fired up their rage and jealousy. when paris got back to the kingdom as a prince, stole helen of sparta to troy and started the trojan war, it was hera and athene who made sure that the greeks were on the winning side. aphrodite was lost, troy was lost, and paris was dead.

now remember your childhood. remember the story of snow white. how the queen had wished for a daughter as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as an ebony frame. how she finally labored the daughter she had wished for. and by the time the daughter—snow-white, as she's been called— had her seventh birthday, the queen didn't get the same answer from the mirror when she asked, "mirror, mirror, on the wall, who in this land is fairest of all?" the queen was outraged to find her daughter surpassed her beauty, and, surprisingly similar to the story of paris, threw snow white to the jungle. but she was saved by the seven dwarfs. the queen, of course, wasn't too happy when she found out, and thus tried to kill her daughter in various way to no avail. at last, she disguised herself as a peasant, poisoned a lucious red apple to be mixed with other apple, ate half of it and gave the other half to snow white, who innocently took a bite until she's finally dead—at least until the prince find her.

apple. temptation. evil. apple is a figurative of temptation, and this implies its use as an allegory of evil.

an apple a day keeps the doctor away.

i mean, who would blame the doctor?