The Apple fruit has long been an ancient symbol of sexual
gratification. Apple as the forbidden
fruit in biblical times has been known for temptation, sin, seduction and also
in garnering knowledge. Persuasion of the carnal kind, women tempt their
men in dubious ways and capitulation gives way to endless ecstasy. And believe
it or not it started with an apple.
As I bite into the rosy apple, the luscious juices flowing
down my chin – the fresh scent of apple blossom catching my breath, all those
sensory perception of life, death and dirty thoughts coming crashing into that
very first crunch.
“An apple a day keeps the doctor away” always associated
with good clean living while Snow White’s poisoned apple linked with evil
thoughts, murder and death. In between life and death there is Adam’s
discovering knowledge by Eve tempting him with the forbidden fruit bringing
about sensual and erotic persuasions. The Apple is many things to many people.
Supposedly a fruit that gives pleasure, another kind of
Apple truly sends me happily to a corner for hours on end. The Apple Mac is attached to me in more ways
than one. It sends me to sleep with
those hypnotic YouTube movies. It wakes me up with my Itunes music. It
entertains me with movies and it is the tool that makes my living. You might say all of these things can be done
by any other brand. And you would be
right. It's just a smoother ride, and subconsciously it's the bite that's
tempting.
One of Steve Job’s fruitarian diet was an Apple. Returning from an Apple farm he made the
decision to call his company Apple because the name sounded ‘fun, spirited and
not intimidating.” Although never suggested anywhere, there is the subliminal message of association with the Tree of Knowledge. Job’s unintended biblical meaning perhaps
underlies his religious skepticism.
To appreciate apples in a way different to the weekly shop
at the groceries, God’s condemned fruit is abundant in many parts of the
world. One area of the globe,
majestically hidden in the foothills of the Himalaya range is Himal Pradesh
where the variety wows you with sheer disbelief that nature has managed to
propagate a whole spectrum of a species in Latin called MALUS.
Throughout history,
apples have symbolized pleasure, love, and fertility. Of course, all of this
does not prove that the sin of Adam and Eve had anything to do with sex. But it
is a strong indication that many interpreters throughout history did believe
their sin was a sexual transgression.
The apple has multiple
symbolic meanings, many of which are sexual. Erotic associations likened apples
to female breasts, while the core of an apple cut in half has often been
compared to a woman's vagina. In ancient mythology, Dionysus, the god of
intoxication, created the apple and presented it to Aphrodite, the goddess of
love.
In the Middle Ages,
the forbidden fruit was often identified as a fig, not an apple. It was later replaced by an apple and became
a symbol of the forbidden fruit, it's Latin name meaning “apple” and “evil.”
Many interpreters
throughout Judeo-Christian history have understood the sin of Adam and Eve to
have something to do with a sexual transgression of one sort or another, it
shouldn't be surprising that the apple was the fruit of choice to depict the
sin of Eden. It has also been used as a symbol of fertility.
Apples play an
important part in several Greek myths. Hera, queen of the gods, owned some
precious apple trees that she had received as a wedding present from Gaia, the
earth mother. Tended by the Hesperides, the Daughters of Evening, and guarded
by a fierce dragon, these trees grew in a garden somewhere far in the west.
Their apples were golden, tasted like honey, and had magical powers. They could
heal, they renewed themselves as they were eaten, and if thrown, they always
hit their target and then returned to the thrower's hand.
In Athens, newlyweds
divided an apple, then ate it prior to entering the bridal chamber. Sending or tossing apples was also a part of
courtship. According to folklore, the apple is one of many foods believed to
possess aphrodisiac powers. In ancient Greece, if a man wanted to propose, he
would simply toss the lady of his affection an apple. If she caught it, he knew
she had accepted his offer.
Even in Islamic
folklore, it is told that the prophet Mohammed inhaled the fragrance of an
apple brought to him by an angel just before his last breath of life.
In Germany, during
medieval times, a man who ate an apple that was steeped in the perspiration of
the woman he loved was very likely to succeed in the relationship.
In Medieval
England, an autumnal celebration centered around the fermented fruit of the
apple tree and the almost Bacchanalian merriment that would ensue. (The
supposed purpose was to ensure a bountiful harvest, or so the story goes.)
Apples contain
phenylethylamine (PEA), which gives you a natural feeling of well-being and
excitement. High in anti-oxidants their
free radical-fighting power boosts natural anti-aging abilities while helping
to fight cancer. Although apples deliver
a jolt of sweetness, their high pectin content keeps a sugar rush at bay,
preventing the hyper high.
So with
historical facts and myths, we come to savoring the definitive species that has taken me all the way into foothills
of the Himalaya range. During the
British Raj, the summers were spent up in Shimla, the weather akin to summer
time in Britain rather than the sweltering wretched humidity found in Poon, or
Bombay. Samuel Evan Stokes introduced
the apple crop in the hills around Shimla while working with the Leprosy
Mission of India.
Stokes brought in
Red Delicious and saplings of Golden Delicious to his orchard in Thanedar . By
1926 the whole of India couldn’t get enough of it, they were an instant. The popularity of these divine fruit spurred locals into planting Apples, rather
than their usual crops of potato and plums. Soon orchards cropped up all over
the valley of Himachal Pradesh, to meet this demand. Thanedar is 80 kms from
Shimla on the old Hindustan-Tibet road, rising to an altitude of about 7700ft,
the majestic views unfolds magnificent panorama of mountains. One step closer to God.
Having gorged myself
on all different strains of Malus, and unable to decide between the Golden
Delicious or the Ambrosia or the Pippin or even the Braeburn; suddenly none of
them swayed me anymore once an offering taste of preserved jellies, jams and
chutney of the various breeds. Now I was
in heaven and utterly understood why Rudyard Kipling called this place Kotgarh
“the Mistress of the Northern Hills.”
Lack of restraint,
lack of will power, lack of faith in God, always denouncing authority, I would
have been easily seduced by the serpent, if this was the Garden of Eden and
that had been my Adam. It would be a
toss up between the effects of a Male Homosapien or a Malus Hornet.