The Apple of Discord – ⅓

Eris, the goddess of strife and discord, couldn’t stand the boredom on mount Olympus anymore, she needed change. And since back then it worked out so well with the golden apple of discord, which she tossed on the wedding table with the inscription “For the most beautiful one” – after all it was the trigger that caused the Trojan war which lasted ten years and ended in the fall of Troy – she thought: I could play that joke again. However, she wasn’t sure if the other goddesses would fall for the same trick again, so she turned to the humans. Humans are stupid. They don’t even learn from mistakes they have made themselves. Eris knew that just right in this moment some of the greatest heroes of Ancient Greece were sitting together to drink to their glorious victories. Therefore, she flew down to the palace in the Underworld where the old warriors, united after their death, sat together on a long, richly laid table and she mingled with the servants. They were all there, sat together and drank wine: Achilles, Hercules, Odysseus, Perseus, Theseus and many more. The alcohol level was already pretty high and the atmosphere was wild. The heroes told their stories about their heroic deeds with admiring looks of the surrounding women and men. Eris discerned the potential for her plan; secretly she conjured up a golden apple from the sleeve of her robe and discreetly tossed it on the table. The apple showed the inscription “For the most admirable one”. Hercules, Achilles, Theseus, Perseus and Odysseus saw the apple and all five tried to grab it. They all claimed it for themselves.

Theseus took the floor and said, he had defeated the Minotaur who had become enraged and for whom they had even built a labyrinth and had given him human sacrifices. Hercules interrupted him and boasted that he had completed all of the twelve unfulfillable tasks which King Eurystheus had set him; he had even caught the furious bull of Crete, which was the father of the Minotaur, and had brought him alive into the king’s palace. Perseus cut him off and shouted proudly he had freed the city of Athens from the terrible Medusa, the woman with living venomous snakes in place of hair, who turned everyone to stone who gazed into her eyes. Achilles signaled his refuse and replied that he had been the greatest and best warrior in the famous Trojan War, most of the enemies had been sent to Hades at his hand. Odysseus who had held himself back discreetly now added that without him and his Trojan Horse the Greeks would have never been able to conquer the city and the war would have continued for many more years and had claimed many more victims. […]