Pronunciation: ee’-ris

Etymology: Strife

Other Names and Epithets: Ἔρις , “The Lady of Sorrow,” “Defender of the People”

Eris is the Greek goddess of strife and discord. She is often thought of as a younger sister to Ares and accompanies him into battle. True to the meaning of her name, Eris loves nothing more than to cause chaos and trouble, giving her a reputation for being sinister and mean-spirited.

Attributes

Animal: Hissing Snake

Patron of: Discordians or Erisians

Planet: Eris

Plant: African Blackwood

Sphere of Influence: Chaos, Conflicts, Strife, Struggles

Symbols: Golden Apple of Discord

Greek Depictions

Eris is described as being a beautiful young woman with pale skin, black wings and carrying a golden apple that she tosses into battle from Ares’ chariot that she rides in.

Parentage and Family

Parents

Three different sets of parentage are given for Eris.

Erebus – Primordial God of Darkness is given as Eris’ father in Hyginus’ works.

Nyx – Goddess of night is given as Eris’ mother. Sometimes Nyx is the only parent listed for Eris.

In the third parentage mentioned, often a later addition:

Zeus – King of the Olympian Gods is Eris’ father.

Hera – Queen of the Olympian Gods is Eris’ mother.

Siblings –

Aeacus, Angelos, Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Dionysus, Eileithyia, Enyo, Ersa, Hebe, Helen of Troy, Heracles, Hermes, Minos, Pandia, Persephone, Perseus, Rhadamanthus, the Graces, the Horae, the Litae, the Muses, the Moirai, Thanatos, Hypnos, the Keres, Hemera, Aether, Moros, Apate, Furies, Oneiroi, Nemesis, Geras, Eleos, Philotes, Oizys, Momus

Consort

Ares – Given that Eris would often ride with Ares into battle on his chariot, it is sometimes assumed that they are consorts.

The truth is, they’re just really good friends and siblings who love the chaos of the battlefield.

Children

Where Eris is the daughter of Hera and Zeus, the sister to Ares, she has the following children:

Strife – A son. This has to be a translation into English from Greek. Like maybe there’s a masculine pronunciation to Eris. This is the name found in Homer’s Iliad.

Where Eris is the daughter of Nyx, she has the following children:

Algea (“Sorrow”), Amphillogiai (“Disputes”), Androctasiai (“Manslaughter”), Ate (“Ruin”), Dysnomia (“Lawlessness”), Horkos (“Oath”), Hysminai (“Fighting”), Lethe (“Forgetfulness”), Limos (“Famine”), Makhai (“Battle”), Neikea (“Quarreling”), Phonoi (“Murder”), Ponos (“Labor”), and Pseudologoi (“Lies”)

Goddess Of Strife

Eris is known for accompanying her brother Ares into battle and tossing her golden apple of discord to incite chaos on the field of battle. Eris’ son, Strife is also known to come along for the ride as well.

Representing the way conflicts and arguments grow, Eris starts off being small but will grow as time passes until her head reaches the heavens and she hurls out the bitterness of resentments, conflicts, and strife upon people.

You Called Her A Daimon!

Yes, as in the Greek term and meaning for the word spirit. It is Christianity that takes and twists the word and meaning to Demon, for an evil spirit or being. In Eris’ case, it would be easy to see why they make that connection.

Among the ancient Greeks, the word daimon means spirit or “replete with knowledge.” They recognized both good (eudemons) and bad (cacodemons). The word or term daimon also means “divine power,” “fate,” or “god.” And in Greek mythology, daimons could also include deified heroes.

Daimons functioned as messengers or intermediary spirits between men and gods. The good daimons were viewed as guardian spirits who gave guidance and protection to those they watched over. The bad daimons, naturally, weren’t so nice and could mislead people, getting them into trouble.

Mother Of Cacodaemons

Where Nyx is listed as her mother, Eris is the mother of numerous Cacodaemons, who are personifications of all the ills and evils that plague mankind.

In Hesiod’s Works and Days, it is mentioned that the fifth day of the month is a day to be careful, for that is when the Cacodaemons are out and about, angry. It is on the fifth day that the Erinyes assist Horkos on plaguing those who bare false oaths.

Pandora’s Jar – Yes, a jar, not a box. We can thank Erasmus of Rotterdam for that mistranslation with the Latin.

When Prometheus gave humans fire, Zeus decided an equally fitting gift of a jar holding all the evils and ills of the world was good. It’s suggested and hinted that these ills and evils were Eris’ offspring awaiting within to be released when Pandora opened the jar to go out and plague mankind. Only Elpis or Hope remained in the jar at Zeus’ bidding.

Two Eris’

Works & Days – By Hesiod, in this book we learn that there are two different goddesses by the name Eris in Greek mythology. The first Eris tends to foment the evils of war and battle, she is thought of as cruel. She really revels in the chaos of war.

The second Eris is the oldest daughter of Nyx. This Eris is far kinder and tends to be associated more with strife in terms of struggling to toil, make ends meet, planting and the day to day struggles of daily living. I’m reminded of a Buddhist saying that there is suffering in life when looking at this second Eris.

Theogony – In this book of Hesiod’s, Eris, the daughter of Nyx is not thought of so kindly as she had been in Works & Days when her children and what they are personifications of are mentioned.

Mistaken Identify – Homer’s Iliad makes mention of Eris, as the sister of Ares. She is one of the few deities who wasn’t invited to the big wedding of Cadmus to Harmonia in Boeotia. Homer is also the source for referring to Eris as the “Defender of the People.” Well that’s a little odd and it likely has to do with Homer confusing Eris with Enyo, a battle goddess.

Golden Apple

Eris is known for tossing her golden apple of discord among a group of people to incite chaos. If the apple is thrown among friends, their friendships end; among enemies, war breaks out.

The best known story is during the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, after Eris wasn’t invited, she tossed her golden apple among the gods as the main prize for who was the most beautiful, thus setting off the events for the Trojan War.

In literature, the golden apple or apple of discord is that core or crux of an argument, that while it starts off small, can leads to larger problems or disputes.

Aesop Fable 534

In this fable, Hercules is heading on his merry way when he spots something laying on the ground. A closer examination shows that it appears to be an apple. Herakles takes his club and decides to smash the apple.

As soon as Herakles strikes it, the apple swells to twice its size. He strikes it again and the apple grows again, so that it is blocking the way.

Dumbfounded, Herakles stands there, dropping his club. Athena happens along and tells Herakles not to be so surprised. This apple was only put there to confuse him by Aporia (Contentiousness) and Eris. If he were to leave the apple alone, it would remain small. But if he insists on fighting it, then the apple will swell in size.

Polytechnos & Aedon

In this story, the couple Polytechnos and Aedon declared that they loved each other more than Hera and Zeus. This declaration attracted the attention of Hera who became angry and sent Eris to stir up trouble between them.

Polytechnos was finishing off a chariot board and Aedon was working on some embroidery. Eris shows up and tells them that “Whosoever finishes their task last will have to present the other with a female servant.

Aedon, with Hera’s help, finishes first. Polytechnos is not happy with losing and goes to Aedon’s sister, Chelidonis with the pretense that Aedon wants to see her. On the way back home, Polytechnos rapes Chelidonis and then dresses her up as a slave with the command to be silent. He then presents Chelidonis to Aedon.

At some point, Chelidonis speaks up, lamenting her fate, and is overheard by Aedon who realizes this is her sister. Why exactly she didn’t realize this sooner, I don’t know.

The two conspire together and Polytechnos’ son, Itys is murdered, chopped up, and served as dinner to his father.

Aedon and Chelidonis then flee back to their father. Polytechnos shows up soon after, angry. With things getting quickly out of hand, Zeus steps in, changing everyone into birds to end the matter.

It’s a story noted to be similar to that of Philomela and Procne found in Ovid’s Metamorphosis. Both stories are a study in word play, explaining how different animals came to be.

Typhon & Zeus

In this story, Zeus finds himself having to battle the monstrous giant Typhon, husband to Echidna, the mother of monsters.

Typhon or Typhoeus is described as a serpentine monster that breathes fire. Zeus fought him using his thunder bolts and aegis.

Eventually Zeus would defeat Typhon and trap him under Mount Etna. Echidna would be allowed to live along with her monstrous children. In Grecian myths, this is how Mount Etna became a volcano. In other versions of the myth, the gods Hermes and Pan would come to Zeus’ aid.

In Nonnus’ Dionysiaca, Eris is described as accompanying Typhon into battle whereas Nike, the minor goddess of Victory, accompanies Zeus into battle.

The Judgement Of Paris

This is perhaps the best-known source for Eris’ myth and story. The gods were feasting at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, who will become the parents of Achilles. All the gods were invited accept Eris who hadn’t received an invite. Chiron was in charge of the wedding invites and didn’t invite Eris due to her reputation for stirring up trouble. This understandably miffed her to no end. After all, everyone else got invited, why not her?

Coming off as seeking to be peaceful and no hard feelings, a beauty contest was proposed between the goddesses Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera. As the prize, Eris tossed a golden apple of beauty, or better known, the golden apple of discord. In some retellings, it is noted that the golden apple has engraved or written the word: “Kallisti,” meaning: “for the fairest.”

This dispute, one driven by vanity over who was the loveliest of the goddess would escalate and the hapless mortal Paris is called in to judge. Each of the goddesses attempted to bribe Paris to choose her. Hera offered political power, Athena offered battle prowess and Aphrodite tempted Paris with the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen.

Being a young mortal man, Paris chooses Helen and rewards Aphrodite with the golden apple. Only there is one problem, Helen is the wife of Menelaus of Sparta. In claiming and taking her, Paris sparks off the Trojan War.

Divine Set Up – If we go by the “lost” epic, The Cypria attributed to Stasinus, this whole Trojan War was planned on by Zeus and Themis. There’s only about 50 lines of text from the Cypria and it’s seen as a prequel to Homer’s The Iliad and explains how the events came about.

Trojan War

Eris gets the blame for starting the Trojan War even though Zeus and Themis had planned on it from the beginning. They just weren’t going to get their hands dirty.

In battle, Eris rode alongside Ares and Enyo on the side of the Trojans. It is in this famous, epic ten-year war that Eris becomes known as the “Lady of Sorrow.”

During one battle, Eris fought on the side of Aeneas, Aphrodite’s son, defending him. The rest of the time, Eris wandered the battlefield, reveling in the chaos of it all, spreading bloodshed wherever she went.

Sleeping Beauty

It has been noted that this classic fairy tale draws inspiration from the story of The Judgement of Paris. Just like Eris, the wicked fairy of Sleeping Beauty takes grievances with not being invited to the princess’s christening and places a curse upon the infant.

Discordian Religion

In the late 1950’s, Greg Hill and Kerry Thornley, under the pen names of “Malaclypse the Younger” and “Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst,” wrote the Principia Discordia. The concept of Eris established in the Principia Discordia gets used and expanded upon further in the science fiction The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. The ideas in this book series have caused many people to call themselves Discordians or Erisians. In turn, this led to the Discordian Religion.

In Discordian teachings, Eris is the main goddess and she has a much softer outlook on the world than her darker Grecian origins. In the Principia Discordia, Eris’ parents are either what’s given in Greek legend or she’s the daughter of the Void. For me, I have to say this is likely the Eris who is the daughter of Nyx showing up here.

Eris is the Goddess of Disorder and Being, her sister Aneris is the goddess of Order and Non-Being. Their brother is Spirituality.

Among Discordians, Eris not being invited to the marriage of Peleus and Thetis is known as the Original Snub.

Essentially, Discordian religion and philosophy teaches that the only truth is chaos. That order and disorder are at best, temporary states. No matter how much people may try to order the world around them, it is still all chaotic.

It puts me to mind Chaos Theory, that what seems random at first, will eventually show having a pattern and the Mendelbrot set being an equation that determines how to figure out that pattern.

As Morticia Addams in the movie said, “Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly.”

Spiders, Why’d There Have To Be Spiders?

It’s either that or someone screaming incoherently before torching down their entire house just to kill it.

Fun and amusing, given how many people are arachnophobic, there is a genus of spiders named after Eris.

Dwarf Planet

Eris is the second largest Dwarf Planet in the Solar System out in the Kuiper Belt. It was discovered in January 2005 by Mike Brown at the Palomar Observatory. It initially received the designations of 2003 UB313, 136199 Eris and the name Xena, after the popular TV series: “Xena: Warrior Princess.” In 2006, it was officially named Eris and has a moon called Dysnomia, after one of Eris’ daughters. Given the actress who played Xena and what Dysnomia means for Lawless, it still works out.

Eris’ discovery, true to her namesake, disrupted and challenged the way in which Planets are classified. It was thought at first it would be the tenth planet in the Solar System. After a series of measurements and calculations, Eris would be classified as a Dwarf Planet alongside Pluto, Ceres, Haumea and Makemake.

So, what makes a Planet versus a Dwarf Planet? In short, a Planet in the classical sense is that it’s relatively round, and able to make a clear orbit around the Sun without another celestial body in its orbit that competes. Whereas a Dwarf Planet doesn’t have a clear orbit and has other celestial objects in its same orbit.

Apep – Egyptian God

An ancient Egyptian god of chaos represented as a giant serpent. He constantly fought against his counterpart, Ma’at, the goddess of light, truth and order.

Discordia – Roman Goddess

She is very simply the Roman version of Eris.

Kali – Hindi Demon

There are two Kali. The first is the goddess who destroys evil to protect the innocent. The second is the Kali demon who is male and the source of all evil.

Lucifer – Christianity

In terms of fomenting trouble and conflicts, temptations, and other problems, some have been daring enough to equate the Christian devil or Lucifer with Eris, particularly the darker aspect of her.

The Morrigan – Celtic Goddess

Eris has been equated with this Celtic goddess when it comes to chaos and conflicts on the field of battle.

Loki – Norse God

If we’re talking tricksters that lean into the darker aspect, causing disruptions wherever they go, then Eris has been equated with this deity.

Set – Egyptian God

Another Egyptian deity associated with deserts, disorder, foreigners, storms, and violence. Unlike Apep, Set is seen more benignly as he is the reconciled fighter where he sails with Ra on his solar boat to fight off Apep, the chaos serpent.

Polar Twins

If Eris is the goddess of chaos and strife, then there must be a polar opposite. This honor falls to Harmonia, the goddess of peace, with her Roman counterpart being Concordia.

If Harmonia is the goddess of peace, then there must be a polar opposite. This honor falls to Eris, often cited as the goddess of chaos with her Roman counterpart being Discordia.