Eris

For the planet named Eris, see Planet Eris


 * Eris: /e'ris/ n. The Greek goddess of Chaos, Discord, Confusion,and Things You Know Not Of;

Eris is the ancient Greek goddess of Discord, sometimes said to be daughter of Zeus and his sister Hera and frequent companion of her brother (some say twin) Ares. Her name was latinized to Discordia and she was worshiped by that name by the (Romans), who associated her with their goddess Discordia. With Zeus, she was the mother of Ate and the Litae. Principia Discordia claims she, her larger and sterile sister Aneris, and brother Spirituality were all the children of the original Void. According to Ek-sen-trik-kuh Discordia: The Tales of Shamlicht, she was the mother of Cherub Princess Shamlicht with Aneris and the two-headed serpent god Dildo Diploos.

She is not generally described as a friendly or helpful deity. The most famous tale of Eris ("strife") recounts her initiating the TrojanWar. The goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite had been invited along with the rest of Olympus to the forced wedding of Peleus and Thetis, who would become the parents of Achilles, but Eris had been snubbed because of her troublemaking inclinations.

She therefore tossed into the party a golden apple inscibed "KALLISTI" -- "For the most beautiful one", or "To the PrettiestOne"-- provoking the goddesses to begin quarreling about the appropriate recipient. The hapless Paris, Prince of Troy, was appointed to select the most beautiful. Greek mythological morality being what it was, each of the three goddesses immediately attempted to bribe Paris to choose her. Hera offered political power, Athena skill in battle, and Aphrodite the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen, wife of Menelaus of Sparta. Paris was a red-blooded young man, and while the length of time he meditated on this problem is not recorded, he did eventually award the apple to Aphrodite. (Discordians call this the Doctrine of The Original Snub).

In the Classical original, she was reinvented as a more benign personification of creative anarchy starting in 1959 by the adherents of Discordianism and has since been a semi-serious subject of veneration in several `fringe' cultures, including hackerdom. Eris has been adopted as the matron deity of the modern [discordian] religion. In the process, however, she has lightened up considerably in comparison to the rather malevolent Graeco-Roman original.

Ek-sen-trik-kuh Discordia: The Tales of Shamlicht describes her in the article Our Pantheon:

DISCORDIA aka ERIS: Goddess of Chaos. Primary Deity of the Discordians and revealer of Principia Discordia. Daughter of a fivesome consisting of Jupiter/Zeus and es sister Juno/Hera, Nyx and es brother Erebus, and the Fifth Wheel (who may have been Void). Or may be the result of the Force of Discord which, in the state of Confusion, copulated with the Queen. Or could have come from Void masturbating. Infant Mother of Humanity (like tribbles, born pregnant); Concubine of Confusion.

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