Myths, sagas and legends

Apples take centre stage in numerous German fairy tales and legends. Snow White bites into an apple and falls into a deep sleep, and the golden girl in Grimm’s Mother Hulda shakes an apple tree with all her might. Apples and mythology belong together like South Tyrol and its mountains.

The Babylonians made reference to an apple tree in a cuneiform text 5000 years ago. They called it “gisch haschtur” and it was considered to be one of the most important of all trees. In ancient times the apple symbolised life - and love, for tossing an apple to someone was considered a declaration of love. This explains why the goddesses of fertility Demeter and Aphrodite were always depicted with an apple.

As a matter of fact: Greek mythology in general makes good use of apples. Hercules undertook a dangerous mission to get hold of the apples of the Hesperides - daughters of the night who loved to sing - who were guarded by a dragon with a hundred heads. And when Paris, during a beauty contest among the goddesses, conferred the apple on Aphrodite, it marked the start of the Trojan War.

The Judeo-Christian tradition, too, was seemingly partial to the sweet fruit. Who doesn’t think of an apple without associating it with the “original sin”? Adam and Eve were expelled from paradise because they took a bite out of the apple from the tree of knowledge. However, the fact that the biblical apple is based on a mistranslation is something few people know: the Latin word for “evil” and “apple” is the same. God therefore did not send Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden because they ate an apple, but because they learned about evil. What a relief: A bit of knowledge that makes an apple taste even better!