Eris

Eris was the Greek goddess of strife and discord, the spirit of quarrelling and battle. In Hesiod she is a daughter of Night (Nyx) and the mother of Toil, Forgetfulness, Famine and many other troubles; in Homer she is the sister and companion of Ares, who stirs up the fighting at Troy. She was said to be the one goddess not invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, and from her anger came the golden apple and the Trojan War. The Romans called her Discordia.

Parents and Family

Hesiod, in the Theogony, makes Eris one of the children of Nyx (Night), who bore them without sleeping with anyone: Moros (Doom), Ker, Thanatos (Death), Hypnos (Sleep), the tribe of Dreams, Momus, Oizys, the Hesperides, the Moirai (Fates) and the Keres, Nemesis, Apate (Deceit), Philotes (Love) and Geras (Old Age), and last Eris (Theogony 211–225). This is the main version. Homer does not name her parents but calls her the sister and comrade of man-slaying Ares (Iliad 4.440–441), which in the usual genealogy would make her a daughter of Zeus and Hera; this is an inference, not something Homer states.

Hesiod also lists her children. Hateful Eris bore Ponos (Toil), Lethe (Forgetfulness), Limos (Famine), the Algea (Pains), the Hysminai (Battles), the Machai (Fights), the Phonoi (Murders), the Androktasiai (Manslaughters), the Neikea (Quarrels), the Pseudea Logoi (Lying Words), the Amphillogiai (Disputes), Dysnomia (Lawlessness), Ate (Ruin), and Horkos (Oath), who most harms men when anyone knowingly swears a false oath (Theogony 226–232). None of these is a single “Strife”: Strife is the English name of Eris herself.

Eris in Homer and Hesiod

In the Iliad, Ares urges on the Trojans and Athena the Achaeans, and with them go Deimos (Terror), Phobos (Fear) and Eris, tireless in her eagerness, who is small at first and then lifts her head to the sky while she walks on the earth; she throws a common quarrel among the fighters and increases the groaning of men (Iliad 4.439–445). Zeus sends her to the ships of the Achaeans with the sign of war in her hands, and standing on Odysseus’ ship she gives a great cry that fills every Achaean with the strength to fight on (Iliad 11.3–14). She is also shown fighting among the figures on the shield of Achilles (Iliad 18.535).

In the Works and Days, Hesiod says there was not one Eris but two on earth. One fosters evil war and battle and is cruel; no mortal loves her, but by the will of the gods men honour the heavy Eris. The other is better and stirs even the idle man to work (Works and Days 11–24).

Eris and the Trojan War

Eris played an important role in the events that eventually led to the Trojan War. According to the epic Cypria, as it is summarised by Proclus, Zeus planned the Trojan War with Themis, and Strife arrived while the gods were feasting at the marriage of Peleus, who would become, with Thetis, the father of Achilles, and started a dispute between Hera, Athena and Aphrodite about which of them was fairest. In Hyginus, when Thetis married Peleus all the gods were invited to the feast except Eris, that is Discordia, who came later and was not allowed in (Hyginus, Fabulae 92).

The Golden Apple

Shut out at the door, Eris threw an apple into the middle of the feast, saying that the most beautiful should take it (Hyginus, Fabulae 92). Apollodorus likewise says that Strife threw an apple as a prize of beauty to be contended for by Hera, Athena and Aphrodite (Apollodorus, Epitome 3.2). The goddesses quarrelled, and Zeus commanded Hermes to lead them to Alexander (Paris) on Mount Ida to be judged. Hera promised him kingship over all men, Athena victory in war, and Aphrodite the hand of Helen, and he decided in favour of Aphrodite. Paris then sailed to Sparta and persuaded Helen, wife of Menelaus, to go away with him, which led to the Trojan War and the destruction of Troy (Apollodorus, Epitome 3.2–3.3; Hyginus, Fabulae 92).

Polytekhnos and Aedon

This story is told by Antoninus Liberalis (Metamorphoses 11). Polytekhnos and Aedon, husband and wife, claimed to love each other more than Hera and Zeus. This angered Hera, who sent Eris to punish them. Polytekhnos was working on a chariot board and Aedon was weaving. Eris urged them into a competition by proclaiming that whoever finished last would have to give the other a female servant. Aedon won and Polytekhnos was not happy at his defeat. He went to Aedon’s sister Khelidon and raped her. He then disguised her and presented her to Aedon as a slave. When Aedon discovered this, she and her sister killed their son Itys and fed the boy to his father. Zeus, in pity, turned the whole family into birds.

Homer knows a related tale of Aedon, the daughter of Pandareus, who mourns in the form of a nightingale for her son Itylus, whom she killed through folly (Odyssey 19.518–523).

Eris Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 211–232, and Works and Days 11–24; Homer, Iliad 4.439–445, 11.3–14, 18.535, and Odyssey 19.518–523; the Cypria as summarised by Proclus; Apollodorus, Epitome 3.2–3; Hyginus, Fabulae 92; Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses 11.

See Also: Nyx, Ares, Thanatos, Hypnos, Zeus, Hera, Harmonia, Aphrodite