Apples of Literature, History and Myth Quiz

Answer: False

Despite frequent mention of the apple in conjunction with this popular biblical story of 'original sin', the specific fruit is not cited in Genesis. Rather, Eve picks a 'fruit' from the 'tree of knowledge of good and evil'. For all we know, it could have been a banana...and in fact, this is what many practitioners of Islam believe, as it is suggested in the Koran. Apparently the apple became the fruit of choice in Christendom only after it served as the frequent subject of artistic renderings of the Genesis story.

Answer: Thetis and Peleus

Eris, the goddess of discord, produced a golden apple at the wedding, to which she was not invited, suggesting that it be bestowed upon the fairest of the goddesses. Among Athena, Hera and Aphrodite, Paris chose the latter and thus doomed the city of Troy to its later fate. One of the Greek heroes of the Trojan War, Achilles, was born of the union between Thetis and Peleus...sealing this wedding day as one of the climactic moments of the Greek mythos.

Answer: Atalanta

Atalanta was daughter of King Schoenus, a fair beauty and an excellent huntress, having participated in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar. Being the swiftest maiden in the world, her hand was promised to the first suitor who could defeat her in a running race.

The man who accomplished this feat was a brilliantly handsome chap named Hippomenes who, with the assistance of Aphrodite and her gift of three golden apples, was able to defeat Atalanta in a race by dropping the golden fruit in her path. Incidentally, I am an advocate for a return to this sort of competition in lieu of marriage proposals.

Answer: Universal cure-all

Ahmed's father, the Sultan of the Indies, has a dilemma; his sons are all in love with their cousin who has been placed under the Sultan's care. The Sultan requests that his sons each travel far and wide, and he who brings back the most magnificent object will receive the lovely girl's hand in marriage. Ahmed discovers an apple with panacea-like qualities in Samarkand, but does not win the girl's hand.

It seems that the gifts of the three sons are equal in magnificence, and the girl's fate is decided by an arrow shooting competition (which Ahmed loses.) No matter...Ahmed finds a much better wife, the beautiful fairy Paribanou and later becomes the new Sultan.

Answer: Voltaire

According to most Newton experts, the apple story is mostly true...the apple indeed fell, inspiring Newton's gravitational law, but not directly on his head. And unlike Archimedes running nude from his bathtub crying 'Eureka!', Newton did not make a spectacle of himself after his apple epiphany. Rather, it took the sardonic wit of Voltaire to expose the apple story to the general public. Voltaire would have done anything to prop up the reputation of Newton against his rival mathematician Leibniz (the inspiration for Voltaire's Dr. Pangloss from 'Candide') and the apple story proved charming enough to assist in that endeavor.

Answer: Deuteronomy

The following verse may be found in Deuteronomy, chapter 32: 'He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; He led him about, He kept him as the apple of his eye.' The 'him' in this case refers to the children of Israel, the 'chosen people'; the 'He' is, of course, God.

Answer: Robert Frost

Here's an excerpt: 'My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, "Good fences make good neighbors."' There are different interpretations of the meaning behind this poem. Is he referring to neighbors or simply the relationship between any two people? Perhaps he means two nations?

Answer: Yes

Indeed, Johnny Appleseed was born John Chapman in Leominster, Massachusetts. He spent nearly 50 years walking, often barefoot, through the American midwest planting hundreds of acres of apple trees during his travels. His exploits were so much discussed that naturally he became a figure of both history and fable, and remains so today.

Answer: Avalon

Medieval chronicler of Arthurian legend, Geoffrey of Monmouth listed 'Insuls Avallonis' (Isle of Apples) as the final resting place of King Arthur. This reference is from his 'History of the Kings of Britain', completed around 1135 A.D.

Answer: New York City

In 1924 Fitzgerald referred to the various horse racetracks in New York as 'The Big Apple', a name that seemed to have stuck within the popular jargon. There are several other possible sources for the use of 'apple' to describe New York City, and indeed inevitable sexual references are part of the story...bordellos and bedrooms, naturally. I'll leave it to you to dig up the dirt! Thank you for trying this quiz, please give my other quizzes a try if you enjoyed this one.