Discordia

File:Discordia print by Philip Galle, S.I 1737, Prints Department, Royal Library of Belgium.jpg

Print of Discordia made by Philip Galle<ref>Discordia (print). Royal Library of Belgium (KBR).</ref>

In Roman mythology, Discordia is the Roman equivalent of the Greek Eris, goddess of strife and discord. She was the daughter of Nox (Night) and Erebus. Like Eris, Discordia has no mythology other than her involvement in the Judgement of Paris.

Unlike her opposite Concordia, Discordia was not a cult goddess, but simply a literary personification, and like Eris was especially associated with the strife and discord in war. She was, in particular, associated with Roman civil war.

Family

The Greek personification of strife and discord, Eris, according to Hesiod's Theogony, is the daughter of Nyx (Night) with no father.<ref>Gantz, pp. 4–5; Hesiod, Theogony 223–225.</ref> Similarly, according to the Fabulae, Discordia is the daughter of Nox (Night), although it gives her father as Erebus.<ref>Bloch, s.v. Discordia; Hyginus, Fabulae Theogony 1.2–6.</ref> The Fabulae lists many siblings of Discord, similar to but different from the list of siblings of Eris as given by Hesiod. For example both are siblings of "Old Age" (the Greek Geras and Roman Senecus), "Death" (the Greek Thanatos and Roman Mors), the Fates (the Greek Moirai and Roman Parcae), and Nemesis ("Indignation").<ref>Hesiod, Theogony 211–225.</ref> However while the siblings of Eris are all negative personified abstractions,<ref>Hard, p. 31.</ref> some of Discordia's are positive, such as Euphrosyne ("Cheerfulness"), and Amicitia ("Friendship"), while others are not personified abstractions at all, such as the Giant Porphyrion, or Styx, the goddess and river of the Underworld. Also unlike Eris, Discordia has no children.

Judgement of Paris

The Roman story of Discordia's involvement in the Judgement of Paris, is essentially the same as that of Eris. As told in the Fabulae, the story is as follows. All the gods, except Discordia, were invited by Jupiter to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. She came anyway and was refused admission, so she threw an apple through the doorway, saying that the most beautiful should take it. The three goddesses, Juno, Venus, and Minerva each claimed the apple. This started the quarrel which led to the Judgement of Paris, and ultimately to the outbreak of the Trojan War.<ref>Hyginus, Fabulae 92.</ref>

Latin literature

Unlike her opposite, Concordia, Discordia was not a cult goddess, and was little more than a literary personification.<ref>Bloch, s.v. Discordia.</ref> As a personification of discord, she is a frequent occurrence in Latin epic poetry, and, and in particular, civil discord and civil war, through the first-century AD. In late antiquity Latin Christian literature, Discordia is contrasted with Concordia, with Discordia becoming a symbol of Christian discord and heresy.<ref>Hardie, pp. 4–5, 49.</ref>

Second-century BC–first-century AD

The Roman poet Ennius seems to have been the first to introduce "loathsome Discord" (Discordia taetra) when, in his second-century BC epic Annales, he describes Discordia as breaking open the "portals of War".<ref>Bernstein, p. 16; Bloch, s.v. Discordia; Ennius Annales Book 7 fr. 13 [= Horace, Satires [1]]. Ennius' "portals of War" have been associated with the doors of the Temple of Janus (Janus Geminus), which were left open whenever Rome was at war, see notes to Ennius 7 fr. 13.3, and Satires 1.4.62.</ref> Virgil, in the Aeneid (first century BC), has "maddening Strife (Discordia demens), her snaky locks entwined with bloody ribbons" as one of the many terrible evils who reside at the entrance to his Underworld.<ref>Bernstein, p. 16; Bloch, s.v. Discordia; Virgil, Aeneid 6.280.</ref>

Discordia was particularly associated with Roman internal conflict and civil war.<ref>Bernstein, pp. 16, 181 (which calls her "the personification of civil war"), see also Fantham, pp. 209–211.</ref> Like the Homeric Eris in the Iliad, who is one of the divinities active in the Trojan War, Virgil makes Discordia one of the divine participants (as depicted on the prophetic Shield of Aeneas) at the Battle of Actium, during the Roman civil war between Octavian and Mark Antony.<ref>Hardie, p. 106; Bernstein, p. 16; Bloch, s.v. Discordia; Smith, s.v. Eris.</ref> In a battle of gods, with "rent robe", Discordia "strides exultant":

Discordia, under the influence of Virgil, appears in the works of the four later first-century AD Roman epic poets Lucan, Silius Italicus, Statius, and Valerius Flaccus. The word discordia (whether personified or not) appears seven times in Lucan's Pharsalia, his epic poem about the decisive battle in Caesar's civil war.<ref>Bernstein, p. 16.</ref> Silius, in his epic Punica about the Second Punic War, begins his Battle of Cannae with Virgil's "maddening strife" (Discordia demens) invading heaven and forcing "the gods to fight".<ref>Bernstein, p. 16; Silius Italicus, Punica 9.288–289.</ref> Statius involves Discordia (in the company of other personifications) in his Thebaid concerning the fraternal war, for the kingship of Thebes, between the two sons of Oedipus, Eteocles and Polynices.<ref>Bernstein, p. 16; Statius, Thebaid 5.76, 7.50.</ref> The Argonautica, Valerius' epic poem about Jason's search for the Golden Fleece, where the theme of civil discord is pervasive,<ref>Krasne, p. 39, with n. 24; Sanderson, pp. 303–304.</ref> also mentions the goddess. In Book 2, Discordia, among other personifications, hurries to assist Venus ("the Martian consort") to incite the women of Lemnos to make (civil) war on their husbands:<ref>Bloch, s.v. Discordia.</ref> Template:Blockquote Later in Book 6, Valerius, describing the crashing chariots of the warring Colchian brothers Aeetes and Perses, has: "the curved blades doth discord [discordia] entangle and lacerate the panic-stricken cars", then goes on to liken the battle between the two brothers to Roman civil war.<ref>Bernstein, p. 16; Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 6.400–406: "As when fierce Tisiphone stirs Roman legions and their princes to war, whose lines on either side glitter with the same eagles and spears".</ref> While preparing Jason for his encounter with the Colchis Bulls, Medea handing him his helm says: "take again this crested helm which Discord [Discordia] held but now in her death-bringing hand".<ref>Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 7.467–468.</ref>

Discordia is also mentioned in non-epic poetry, also often associated with Roman civil war. She makes an appearance in a civil war parody in Petronius's Satyricon (late first century AD), where she is described as follows:<ref>Bernstein, p. 16.</ref>

Urging all to war—in particular several notable figures in Caesar's civil war: Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, Marcellus, Curio, Lentulus—Discordia: Template:Blockquote

Early Fifth-century

Discordia's opposite, Concordia ("Concord"), the Roman equivalent of the Greek Harmonia ("Harmony"), was a Roman goddess who had a temple (the Temple of Concord) dedicated to her in the Roman Forum. The opposition between concordia (concord) and discordia (discord), and their personifications Concordia and Discordia—a dichotomy made use of by Virgil in the Aeneid—becomes, for late antiquity Latin poets, "something of an obsession".<ref>Hardie, pp. 4, 48.</ref>

Augustine, in his City of God (426 AD)—responding to the accusation that the 410 AD Sack of Rome was the result of Christianity and the failure to appease the pagan gods—argues that Rome's pre-Christian history, which was rife with civil discord and civil war, might just as well be said to have been the result of Rome's failure to appease Discordia.<ref>Hardie, pp. 110–111; Augustine, City of God 3.25.</ref> He notes that, following the dedication of the Temple of Concord in Rome,<ref>Presumably referring to the reconstruction of the temple by Lucius Opimius, following the death of Gaius Gracchus in 121 BC.</ref> there was even worse civil discord, and remarks sarcastically that it would have been more appropriate for Rome to have built instead a "temple to Discord".<ref>Compare Plutarch, Lives. Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus 17, where Plutarch reports that following "the erection of a temple of Concord by Opimius ... at night, beneath the inscription on the temple, somebody carved this verse:—A work of mad discord produces a temple of Concord.".</ref> He goes on to ask "why Concord should be a goddess, but Discord not", and—in what he describes as having "our fun with such inanities"— concludes that: Template:Blockquote

The opposition of Concordia and Discordia is particularly explicit in the Christian poet Prudentius's early fifth-century allegory Psychomachia ("Battle of the Soul"), in which armies of personified Virtues and Vices do battle.<ref>Hardie pp. 5, 49.</ref> Here the Vice Discordia becomes explicitly identified with religious heresy. After the army of Vices had been defeated, Discordia, in disguise, entered the camp of the celebrating Virtues, seeking to attack surreptitiously the "greatest" of the Virtues Concordia:<ref>Hardie, p. 118; Prudentius, Psychomachia 683–684</ref> Template:Blockquote

But Discordia is discovered, and with the army of Virtues, swords drawn, surrounding her and demanding to know "her race and name, her country and her faith, what God she worships, of what nation he that sent her",<ref>Prudentius, Psychomachia 705–708.</ref> she answers: Template:Blockquote

At which point Faith, the Virtues' queen, unwilling to hear any more of their "outrageous prisoner’s blasphemies", stopped Discordia's speech by driving a javelin through her tongue,<ref>Psychomachia 715–718</ref> and: Template:Blockquote

Martianus Capella (fl. c. 410–420), has Discordia, along with Seditio (Sedition) as being a deity of the third celestial region.<ref>Block, s.v. Discordia; Petrovicova, "Martianus Capella's interpretation of Juno"; Martianus Capella 1.47.</ref>

Modern culture

Discordia/Eris is an important figure within the new religious movement Discordianism.<ref>Cusack, pp. 27–30.</ref>

See also

• Illa de la Discòrdia

References

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• Bernstein, Neil W., "Introduction" and "Commentary", in Template:Cite book
• Bloch, Rene s.v. Discordia, in Brill's New Pauly Online, Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and, Helmuth Schneider, English Edition by: Christine F. Salazar, Classical Tradition volumes edited by: Manfred Landfester, English Edition by: Francis G. Gentry, published online: 2006.
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• Fantham, Elaine, "12 Discordia Fratrum: Aspects of Lucan's Conception of Civil War", in Citizens of Discord: Rome and Its Civil Wars. Editors: Brian Breed, Cynthia Damon, and Andreola Rossi. Oxford University Press. 2010. Template:ISBN. pp. 207–220. Online version at Oxford Academic.
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Prudentius, Preface. Daily Round. Divinity of Christ. Origin of Sin. Fight for Mansoul. Against Symmachus 1. Translated by H. J. Thomson. Loeb Classical Library No. 387. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1949. Template:Isbn. Online version at Harvard University Press.

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