The apple goes back to the furthest reaches of history. After all, it was when Adam bit into one that paradise ceased to exist on earth. But we haven't borne the apple any grudge: in the ensuing centuries it has spread throughout the world and is now found just about everywhere. However, despite its origins in Asia Minor, the apple is today one of the least common fruits east of Europe.
In Greek mythology, during the wedding feast of Peleus and Thetis the goddess Discord threw down an apple from the clouds, marked "for the fairest." Paris, given the unenviable task of choosing the most beautiful woman, gave the apple to Aphrodite who had bribed him by offering him Helen - and thus the Trojan war began.
In a landmark in the history of science, the 24-year old physicist Isaac Newton clued into the laws of gravity when an apple fell from a branch of the tree under which he was sitting.
In the superstition-filled Turkish and Persian cultures, to have a wish granted you have to eat 40 apples, blowing onto each of them while thinking of what you're wishing for, before biting into them one by one. Stopping at 39 will break the spell and bring down dire catastrophe upon the house… however, the story doesn't specify how much time is allowed for eating all 40!
Under France's King Henri IV, many varieties of apples were produced that could be eaten without restriction - except during the Christmas period.
an original sketch by Albert Hurter
for the production of the animated version of Snow White |
During NoRuz, the Iranian new year which takes place around March 21 (depending on the year), tradition dictates that the table in every Iranian home be laid with "haft sin," or the seven "S's," seven symbolic elements which include the "seeb," or apple, symbol of life on earth. Two particular apples live on in the imagination of every child. Who can forget the tale of the apple placed on the head of William Tell's son? Or the apple given to Snow White by the evil queen? Incidentally, did you know that at its origin the apple was a poisonous fruit containing cyanide?
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The first apple trees arrived in New France in the baggage of Louis Hébert in 1617 but it was not until 1650 that the first orchard was planted by the Sulpicians on the slopes of Mont-Royal. The most prized varieties at the end of the 19th century were the Fameuse, Pomme Grise, Bourassa, Golden Russet, Tallman Sweet, Late Strawberry and Blue Permain.
Other varieties were born over the following decades, and the tempting fruit was adopted as the emblem of the Big Apple (New York City), as well as a trademark in the computer world.
And of course, it was on the Apple Records label that the Beatles made musical history.
