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Eris

proper noun

  1. dwarf planet beyond Neptune
  2. Greek goddess
  3. arachnid genus
L21969 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈɪəɹɪs/ / /ˈɛɹɪs/

name

Etymology: Borrowed from Ancient Greek Ἔρις (Éris), from ἔρις (éris, “strife”). See also Eris (mythology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia and Eris (dwarf planet) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

  1. The goddess of discord and strife, whose apple of discord sparked events that eventually led to the Trojan War; equated by Homer with Enyo (goddess of violent war) and identified with the Roman goddess Discordia;

    According to Homer, the Trojan war is, above all, an affair of the gods. It is about Eris, a sister of the god of war Ares, and about Eros, not directly named by Homer, but who in the figure of Aphrodite, the god of love, plays a central role on the side of the Trojans. Eris is the one who divides gods, mortals, and things from each other; Eros is the one who brings them together.

    1993, Herman Parret, The Aesthetics of Communication: Pragmatics and Beyond, Springer, Softcover reprint, page 18, Eris, "the Strife with the violent heart", one reads in Hesiod's Theogony, is a child of the Night, and "Hateful Struggle gave birth to painful Distress and Distraction and Famine and tearful Sorrow; also Wars and Battles and Murders and Slaughters; also Feuds and Lying Words and Angry Words".

  2. The goddess of discord and strife, whose apple of discord sparked events that eventually led to the Trojan War; equated by Homer with Enyo (goddess of violent war) and identified with the Roman goddess Discordia; (religion, Discordianism) the same figure as principal deity of Discordianism, regarded as the goddess of disorder.
  3. The celestial body 136199 Eris, the most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the largest known object in the scattered disk; formerly nicknamed Xena.

    Today, Xena is no longer Xena but has been officially renamed Eris, after the Greek goddess of strife and discord—which hints at the climate in planetary science at the time. Its moon has a similarly appropriate name, Dysnomia (lawlessness) in Greek mythology, the daughter of Eris. Observations of Eris and Dysnomia have confirmed that Eris is 27 per cent more massive than Pluto, though of a similar diameter.

  4. An unincorporated community in Champaign County, Ohio, United States.