Eris/Discordia
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Eris/Discordia
Whats everyones view on Eris/Discordia? Do you worship Her? I find her to be an interesting Deity and am curious how others feel about Her.
Favonius Zephyrus- Newbie
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Join date : 2013-04-13
Age : 32
Location : Auckland, New Zealand
Re: Eris/Discordia
Favonius Zephyrus wrote:Whats everyones view on Eris/Discordia? Do you worship Her? I find her to be an interesting Deity and am curious how others feel about Her.
Discord is a personified concept, rather than a deity, and an almost entirely malignant concept. Discord represents argument, failed marriage, jealousy, distrust, suspiciousness, strife, war, greed, divisiveness, and just about every other harmful thing you can imagine.
For the Greeks, every idea that appeared in a mythic story was personified by a character, and this is where Discord as a character arises. It is like when English language authors or poets personify ideas like 'Love' or 'Sadness' or 'Death'.
I am not aware of there having ever been any cult of Discord, and any worship of the concept in general would have been very unusual and certainly rare, probably only by those in hateful, malicious states of mind.
The greatest and most glorious temple of Discord to have ever been built, I think, is the Korean DMZ.
Re: Eris/Discordia
Hesiod, from Works & Days:
Between that and Empedocles' "Love and Strike" (actually, "philia" and "neikos", Attraction and Repulsion) is much closer to how I see things --there's definitely "an Eris", or a face of Eris, Who exists to deliver harsh truths and goad us into improving. I mean, Hesiod seemed to agree, and if the source is older than Malaclypse the Younger, then it can't be complete bunk. ;-)
It was never true that there was only one Eris (Strife). There have always been two on earth. There is one you could like when you understand her. The other is hateful. The two Erites have separate natures. There is one Eris who builds up evil war, and slaughter. She is harsh; no man loves her, but under compulsion and by will of the immortals, men promote this rough Eris (Strife). But the other one was born the elder daughter of black Nyx. The son of Kronos, who sits on high and dwells in the bright air set her in the roots of the earth and among men; she is far kinder. She pushes the shiftless man to work, for all his laziness. A man looks at his neighbour, who is rich: then he too wants work; for the rich man presses on with his ploughing and planting and ordering of his estate. So the neighbour envies the neighbour who presses on toward wealth. Such Eris (Strife) is a good friend to mortals.
Between that and Empedocles' "Love and Strike" (actually, "philia" and "neikos", Attraction and Repulsion) is much closer to how I see things --there's definitely "an Eris", or a face of Eris, Who exists to deliver harsh truths and goad us into improving. I mean, Hesiod seemed to agree, and if the source is older than Malaclypse the Younger, then it can't be complete bunk. ;-)
OfThespiae- Newbie
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Join date : 2013-04-16
Age : 42
Location : Lansing, MI
Re: Eris/Discordia
Yes, the two 'strifes.' The first one, Strife, and the second 'Striving' — we even use the same root word for both concepts in English.
But the 'other Strife' that Hesiodos mentions seems to me, by domain and genealogy, to be the same as the force Orphics call 'lesser/second Necessity', who is likewise the progeny of Zefs and Night, and who, similarly, drives the motionless into motion.
Forgive the confusion — because the Orphic system distinguishes the two in nomenclature, it had slipped my mind to consider that Hesiodos had called the lesser Necessity by the name of 'Eris' as well. I was speaking only of the one Hesiodos calls 'abhorred Strife.'
But the 'other Strife' that Hesiodos mentions seems to me, by domain and genealogy, to be the same as the force Orphics call 'lesser/second Necessity', who is likewise the progeny of Zefs and Night, and who, similarly, drives the motionless into motion.
Forgive the confusion — because the Orphic system distinguishes the two in nomenclature, it had slipped my mind to consider that Hesiodos had called the lesser Necessity by the name of 'Eris' as well. I was speaking only of the one Hesiodos calls 'abhorred Strife.'
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