Chat About You

Dreams, relationships, people, and more.

  • Home
  • Art
  • Contact
  • Recent Articles
  • Categories
    • About People
    • About Relationships
    • About Dreams
    • About Beauty
    • About Life
    • Fun & Entertaining
You are here: Home / Fun & Entertaining / The Apple – Symbol of Good or Evil?

The Apple – Symbol of Good or Evil?

Tweet

by Aya Hajime 5 Comments

The apple is rich in symbolism.

Apples have been used in many popular legends and stories as both a symbol of good (love, youth, beauty) and evil (sin, lust, discord).

Today, the apple is more popular than ever. Google shows 68 million global monthly searches for the termapple.

This is greatly helped by Apple Computer, one of the most successful companies of our time, which uses the apple in its name as well as logo.

  • Why is the apple so popular in our stories and mythologies?
  • Why does the apple represent strong and sometimes conflicting attributes?
  • What does the apple symbol truly mean?
The Apple - Symbol of Good or Evil?
The Apple – Symbol of Good or Evil?
Source: Apple Pictures

The Apple – Symbol of Love

The Serpent tempted Eve to partake of the Fruit of Knowledge, and this in turn led to sin.
The Serpent tempted Eve to partake of the Fruit of Knowledge, and this in turn led to sin.

The apple is frequently used as a symbol of love.

Pictures of Venus often show her holding an apple. Venus is a Roman goddess associated with love, beauty and fertility, all of which are also associated with the apple. In addition, Venus is also known for her skills at charm and seduction. In Latin, venus means love and desire.

This is perhaps where some of the more sinful aspects of apples come from. Certainly love or carnal desire have led many men to sin.

This is probably why many artists depict the Forbidden Fruit in the Bible as an apple.

The apple seduces and the apple tempts,

Just as the Serpent tempted Eve to partake of the Fruit of Knowledge, which led to sin and the fall of man; which in turn is intricately linked with desire and lust.

Apples Are a Symbol of Love.
Apples Are a Symbol of Love.

The Apple – Symbol of Evil

Our strong passion to possess that love or beauty can quickly turn into lust and obsession.
Our strong passion to possess that love or beauty can quickly turn into lust and obsession.

The apple is a symbol of love and beauty.

However, love and beauty is temptation, and our strong passion to possess that love or beauty can quickly turn into lust and obsession.

This is what started the well-known Trojan War.

In this Greek tragedy, the Goddess of Discord Eris throws an apple into a wedding party. This apple was labelled with the words ‘For the most beautiful one‘.

The Goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite all laid claim to this apple because each thought of herself as the most beautiful. Beauty, in this case, caused envy and jealousy among those who would claim it to the exclusion of all others.

Finally, the Goddesses agreed to let Paris of Troy select the rightful recipient of the Apple. Each Goddess tempted Paris with various gifts, but it was Aphrodite who won by offering young Paris a view of the most beautiful woman in the world – Helen of Sparta. Ultimately, this love for beauty led to the Trojan War, the destruction of Troy, and the deaths of countless people.

This theme of love and beauty gone bad repeats itself in many of our stories and popular myths. In Snow White, for example, the evil stepmother had to be the most beautiful, and was willing to kill in order to keep that coveted title.

In fact, in Latin, the words for apple (mālum) and for evil (malum) are nearly identical.

The Apple - Symbol of Evil
The Apple – Symbol of Evil

The Apple – Symbol of Life and Health

From love and desire comes the creation of new life.

As a result, the apple also symbolizes life and the the circle of life (death and rebirth).

In addition, apples have many health benefits. For example, apples can help relieve sore throat, allergies, and poor digestion. These medicinal qualities of apples further contribute to its symbolism of life, health, and fertility. This is why we say,

An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

Finally, apple trees grow abundant fruit, which is another association with fertility, life, and health.

Indeed Venus is not just the Goddess of love and beauty, but also of fertility.

The Apple - Symbol of Life, Rebirth, and Immortality
The Apple – Symbol of Life, Rebirth, and Immortality.

The Apple – Magic and the Occult

In Arthurian legend, the magical island of Avalon is named after the apple. Avalon comes from the Welsh word afal, which means apple. Avalon is therefore the Isle is Apples.

In King Arthur’s tale, the island of Avalon is a place of great magic. At Avalon, Excalibur was forged and given to Arthur. Avalon was also Arthur’s final resting place after receiving grievous wounds from his battle with Mordred. Again, the apple is prominently associated with the powerful forces of creation, death, and rebirth.

Not surprisingly, the apple is a strong symbol of the Occult.

When cut through its equator, the apple has a near perfect pentagram shape inside, with each point containing a seed.

~~ [ Ancient Spiral.com ]

The upright pentagram is very widely used as a magical symbol by ancient Pagans, Wiccans, and others. It was also used as a religious symbol by Israelites, and Christians.

Later, the pentagram was inverted and depicted together with the head of a goat to indicate the sign of Baphomet. This symbol is now widely used by religious Satanists.

The Apple - Magic and the Occult
The Apple – Magic and the Occult

The Apple – Good or Evil?

Is the apple a symbol of good or evil?

While researching this interesting question, I came across a fun story about Apple Computer’s logo. Apparently, some people have criticized the company because its logo depicts an apple with a bite taken out of it. For some, this indicates support for eating the Forbidden Fruit of Knowledge, which in turns leads to support for the Devil and man’s fall into sin.

I think the apple, first and foremost, is the symbol of love and beauty.

From love and beauty, we are inspired to perform great acts, and to create great works of art.

However, love and beauty can also become an all consuming obsession. This loss of self-control leads us to commit equally heinous acts of violence and cruelty. As is told over and over again in popular myths, legends, and stories, love and beauty can lead to much sadness and destruction.

The seeming inconsistency of the apple both as a symbol of good as well as evil is really not an inconsistency at all. Rather, it reflects our own battle with love and lust, with passion and obsession. It reflects our struggle with self-control in the presence of great temptation.

The apple is not good or evil, just as love and beauty are not wholly good or wholly evil. However, they can cause us to perform extremely good or extremely evil acts.

The Apple - Good or Evil?
The Apple – Good or Evil?

Related Articles

What Do You Think of Vampire Girls?

Vampire girls play a prominent role in todays culture. Why are vampire girl stories so compelling? What do these stories tell us about ourselves, and do we truly want to be like a vampire?

Comments

  1. secret says

    October 15, 2012 at 2:54 pm

    apples are evil because it came to satans and it has original sins

    Reply
  2. quicksand says

    August 12, 2011 at 2:53 pm

    Stay away from apples! If you don’t you will not qualify to cast stones!

    Reply
    • Donna J Wilson says

      September 2, 2016 at 5:56 am

      No one can cast a stone but Jesus Christ and he who is without sin let him cast the first stone

  3. Druid Dude says

    August 12, 2011 at 2:52 pm

    Cortland apples come from my hometown. Now I’m kinda homesick. Thanks for the hub!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

Recent Posts

  • Long haired, attractive woman, wearing black, with two hands out inviting readers to participate in survey.Attractive Women Survey
  • Fire Goddess turned to the right, flying Phoenix turned to the left. Both figures are back to back on a fiery background.Dream of Fire - The Meaning of Fire Dreams
  • Face close-up of blonde man with goatee.Attractive Men Survey - Which Men Do You Find Most Attractive?
  • Dream wizard holding a staff on his left hand, with his right hand raised to cast a magic spell.How to Analyze Our Dream of Magic
  • Tall woman with finger on lips, short woman to the left with hands on skirt front.Tall Women or Short Women - Which Do Men Prefer?
  • Dream of tattoo girls body close-up.Finding the Meaning of Your Dream about Tattoos
  • Blonde woman in pink dress with hands on shoulders, man in black behind and holding her hand.5 Scientific Tips on How to Be Attractive to Men
  • Dream angel with colorful wings, smiling and flying in the night sky.To Dream of Angels - Meaning and More
  • Blue dream girl sitting and playing in a calm pool of water, under a bright full moon.Dream of Water - What Does It Mean?
  • Boy in shirt and jeans holding hands with girl in cap and overalls in a green field of grass and blue skies.Virtual Love - Is It Real?

Recent Comments

  • Fire Goddess turned to the right, flying Phoenix turned to the left. Both figures are back to back on a fiery background.Dream of Fire – The Meaning of Fire Dreams
    • Rizza
      - I had a dream about fire. There's a house burning and like 3-5 blocks after there are 2 buildings beside each other burning. ...
    • Lauren
      - I had a dream that a series of fires stared in my bedroom. I was able to stomp them out with my feet. They were easily put ...
    • Crystal
      - I had a dream about me and my siater in law in my dream i already know me and her dont see eye to eye then out of nowhere ...
  • Red cat girl on the right with finger on lips. Black catgirl to the left and facing back.Why We Love Catgirls
    • Joe
      - Id rather have a sexy feline cat girl who is into scratching and kitten play and lives her life as my cat only mine she would ...
  • Dream angel with colorful wings, smiling and flying in the night sky.To Dream of Angels – Meaning and More
    • Althea Richardson
      - Please ask GOD to reveal to you the meaning of the dream. Keep praying something will be revealed.
    • Angelonearth
      - Last week I had a dream with an angel. I was in the beach with 2 friends. A lot of people are enjoying the day but as we ...
    • Sol
      - i had a typo in the previous post.... here it is corrected I just had a dream and i was sitting and a woman was playfully ...
    • Sol
      - I just had a dream and i was sitting and a woman was playfully painting my nails and then i saw in the middle of the street ...
    • Amasha
      - You lucky to see a pure angel But me it's a different story i saw white but dirty dress in black feather angle crying and ...
  • Dream wizard holding a staff on his left hand, with his right hand raised to cast a magic spell.How to Analyze Our Dream of Magic
    • Matt B
      - I had a dream that i went into a large brick multi story house with someone and we were met by ghostly looking people so ...

Copyright © 2019 · Genesis Skins by ShibaShake · Terms of Service · Privacy Policy ·