the apple

Species: Malus domestica, in the rose family Rosaceae.

one of the most cultivated tree fruits, originated from Central Asia.

Colonists brought apples to North America in 1600's.

In 1665 AC Sir Isaac Newton watched an apple fall to the ground and wondering why it fell in a straight line was inspired to discover the laws of gravitation and motion.

In 1904 J.T. Stinson proclaimed "An apple a day keeps the doctor away".

There are more than 7500 know cultivars of apples.

In 2005 @least 55 million tons of apples were grown worldwide with a value of about $10 billion dollars.

USA produces more than 7.5% of the world production.

Apples & Mythology

English scholar H.R. Ellis Davidson links apples to religious practices in Germanic paganism, from which Norse paganism developped.

Buckets of apples were found in the Oseburg ship burial site in Norway.

Eleven "golden apples" were given to woo the beautiful Geror by Skirnir, who was acting as messenger for the major Vanir god Freyr.

In chapter 2 of the Völsunga saga the major goddess Frigg sends King Rerir an apple after he prays to Odin for a child.

Fter Rerir's wife eats the apple she becomes pregnant for 6 years and gives birth by caesarean to their son the hero Völsung.

In Greek mythology Heracles as part of his Twelve Labours was required to travel to the Garden of the Hesperides and pick the golden apples off the Tree of Life growing at its center.

Gaia, mother earth, presented a tree with golden apples to Zeus and his bride Hera on their wedding day.

An apple put in the scene by Eris the goddess of discord and offered by Paris to Aphrodite was indirectly the cause of the Trojan War.

Atalanta raced al her suitors in a an attempt to avoid marriage.

She outran them all but Hippomenes (aka Melanion) who distracted her with three golden apples (gifts of Aphrodite).

Homer tells about how King Tantalus was " tantalized" by the unreachable "fruit over his head: pears, pomegranates, sweet figs, apples and juicy olives."

Aristoteles was said to have kept death away by holding an apple and inhaling it life sustaining fragrance. Finally and consciously he drops the apple thus releasing his soul.

Snow White bites an apple offered to her by her wicked stepmother and falls to sleep until her prince charming awakes her with a kiss, in the meantime she is taken care of by 7 dwarfs.

In the Book of Genesis the forbidden fruit is not identified, but in popular Christian tradition it is held that it was an apple that Eve coaxed Adam to share with her.

The apple became a symbol for knowledge, immortality, temptation, the fall of man into sin and sin itself.

The larynx in the human throat has been called Adam's apple because it was believed to be caused by the forbidden fruit sticking in the throat of Adam.

In Latin the words for apple and evil are similar (malus—apple, malum—evil)