Discordia
In Roman mythology, Discordia is the Roman equivalent of the Greek Eris, goddess of strife and discord. She was the daughter of Nox 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 with no father.Similarly, according to the Fabulae, Discordia is the daughter of Nox, although it gives her father as Erebus. 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", "Death", the Fates, and Nemesis. However while the siblings of Eris are all negative personified abstractions, some of Discordia's are positive, such as Euphrosyne, and Amicitia, 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.Latin literature
Unlike her opposite, Concordia, Discordia was not a cult goddess, and was little more than a literary personification. 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.Second-century BC–first-century AD
The Roman poet Ennius seems to have been the first to introduce "loathsome Discord" when, in his second-century BC epic Annales, he describes Discordia as breaking open the "portals of War". Virgil, in the Aeneid, has "maddening Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody ribbons" as one of the many terrible evils who reside at the entrance to his Underworld.Discordia was particularly associated with Roman internal conflict and civil war. 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 at the Battle of Actium, during the Roman civil war between Octavian and Mark Antony. 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 appears seven times in Lucan's Pharsalia, his epic poem about the decisive battle in Caesar's civil war. Silius, in his epic Punica about the Second Punic War, begins his Battle of Cannae with Virgil's "maddening strife" invading heaven and forcing "the gods to fight". Statius involves Discordia in his Thebaid concerning the fraternal war, for the kingship of Thebes, between the two sons of Oedipus, Eteocles and Polynices. The Argonautica, Valerius' epic poem about Jason's search for the Golden Fleece, where the theme of civil discord is pervasive, also mentions the goddess. In Book 2, Discordia, among other personifications, hurries to assist Venus to incite the women of Lemnos to make war on their husbands:
Later in Book 6, Valerius, describing the crashing chariots of the warring Colchian brothers Aeetes and Perses, has: "the curved blades doth discord entangle and lacerate the panic-stricken cars", then goes on to liken the battle between the two brothers to Roman civil war. While preparing Jason for his encounter with the Colchis Bulls, Medea handing him his helm says: "take again this crested helm which Discord held but now in her death-bringing hand".
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, where she is described as follows:
Urging all to war—in particular several notable figures in Caesar's civil war: Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, Marcellus, Curio, Lentulus—Discordia:
Early Fifth-century
Discordia's opposite, Concordia, the Roman equivalent of the Greek Harmonia, was a Roman goddess who had a temple dedicated to her in the Roman Forum.The opposition between concordia and discordia, 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".
Augustine, in his City of God —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. He notes that, following the dedication of the Temple of Concord in Rome, 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". 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:
The opposition of Concordia and Discordia is particularly explicit in the Christian poet Prudentius's early fifth-century allegory Psychomachia, in which armies of personified Virtues and Vices do battle. 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:
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", she answers:
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, and:
Martianus Capella, has Discordia, along with Seditio as being a deity of the third celestial region.