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Apples appear in many religious traditions, often as a mystical or forbidden fruit. One of the problems identifying apples in religion, mythology and folktales is that as late as the 17th century, the word "apple" was used as a generic term for all (foreign) fruit other than berries, but including nuts.〔"apple." Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. 25 May. 2011. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/apple〕 This term may even have extended to plant galls, as they were thought to be of plant origin (see oak apple). For instance, when tomatoes were introduced into Europe, they were called "love apples". In one Old English work, cucumbers are called ''eorþæppla'' (lit. "earth-apples'), just as in French, Dutch, Hebrew, Persian and Swiss German, the words for potatoes mean "earth-apples" in English. In some languages, oranges are called "golden apples" or "Chinese apples". Datura is called 'thorn-apple". Ethnobotanical and ethnomycological scholars such as R. Gordon Wasson, Carl Ruck and Clark Heinrich write that the mythological apple is a symbolic substitution for the entheogenic Amanita muscaria (or fly agaric) mushroom. Its association with knowledge is an allusion to the revelatory states described by some shamans and users of psychedelic mushrooms. At times artists would co-opt the apple, as well as other religious symbology, whether for ironic effect or as a stock element of symbolic vocabulary. Thus, secular art as well made use of the apple as symbol of love and sexuality. It is often an attribute associated with Venus who is shown holding it. ==Mythology and religion== Though the forbidden fruit in the Book of Genesis is not identified (The side effects of Favism are described in the 7 penitential psalms),〔http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/202897/favism〕 popular Christian tradition holds that Adam and Eve ate an apple from the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden. This may have been the result of Renaissance painters adding elements of Greek mythology into biblical scenes. The unnamed fruit of Eden thus became an apple under the influence of the story of the golden apples in the Garden of Hesperides. As a result, the apple became a symbol for knowledge, immortality, temptation, the fall of man and sin. The Ancient Greek word ''"μήλον"'' (mēlon), now a loanword in English as melon or water melon did not mean, in Homer's time, apple, the pomaceous fruit, but sheep or goat.〔Entry (μῆλον ) at Liddell & Scott.〕 In Latin, the words for 'apple' ("mālum") and for 'evil' ("mălum") are nearly identical. This may also have influenced the apple's becoming interpreted as the biblical 'forbidden fruit' in the commonly used Latin translation called "Vulgate". The larynx in the human throat has been called Adam's apple because of the folk tale that the bulge was caused by the forbidden fruit sticking in the throat of Adam. The apple as symbol of sexual seduction has sometimes been used to imply sexuality between men, possibly in an ironic vein. The notion of the apple as a symbol of sin is reflected in artistic renderings of the fall from Eden. When held in Adam's hand, the apple symbolises sin. But, when Christ is portrayed holding an apple, he represents the Second Adam who brings life. This difference reflects the evolution of the symbol in Christianity. In the Old Testament, the apple was significant of the fall of man; in the New Testament, it is an emblem of the redemption from that fall. The apple is represented in pictures of the Madonna and Infant Jesus as another sign of that redemption. In some versions (such as Young's Literal Translation) of the Bible, the Hebrew word for mandrakes ''dudaim'' (Genesis 30:14) is translated as "love apples" (not to be confused with the New World tomatoes). There are several instances in the Old Testament where the apple is used in a more favourable light. The phrase 'the apple of your eye' comes from verses in Deuteronomy 32:10, Psalm 17:8 Proverbs 7:2, and Zechariah 2:8, implying an object or person who is greatly valued. In Proverbs 25:11, the verse states, "''a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver''". In the love songs of the Song of Solomon, the apple is used in a sensual context. In these latter instances, the apple is used as a symbol for beauty. The apple appears again in Joel 1:12 in a verse with a sense of profound loss when the apple tree withers. During the Jewish New Year - (Hashanah ) - it is customary to eat apples dipped in honey to evoke a "sweet new year". It is a long-standing tradition in many tribal communities that the first born child of any couple shall be presented with an apple randomly picked from a tree by their paternal grandparents on the day of their birth. If the chosen apple is sliced open and revealed to have a worm inside, it is a bad omen and on their 21st birthday, the child must perform a dance to the fruit gods to spare the lives of their own offspring. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Apple (symbolism)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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