82. The phrase apple of my eye was originally intended to refer to the pupil positioned at the center of one’s eye but came to refer to something one most cherishes or favors. During the days of Ozymandias, this phrase may well have been used quite literally to refer to whatever one’s eyes focused on or could be seen outwardly reflected upon the dark center surface of their eyes. Another revised reference to apples is their inception into the imagery depicting an unspecified fruit from the tree of knowledge which caused the fall of man from God’s favor in Genesis. Of course, the use of apples in reference to this tale was extended to apply to the Adam’s apple which was symbolically substituted for the anatomically termed laryngeal prominence, insinuating that the forbidden fruit became caught in Adam’s throat, as he’d been unable to fully ingest or fathom this fateful fruit. The fact that this trait has been passed on through heredity also alludes to the phrase, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. I also remember someone largely believed to be a bad apple, telling me a joke about that anatomical area emerging after an accident involving an apple stuck in a pig’s mouth, a game of bobbing for apples, and a Jewish man who was not supposed to eat pork due to Kashrut law. After I’d heard the joke, I actually became paranoid about giving an apple to my teachers, as I didn’t know if they were Jewish, and couldn’t be certain that any given apple hadn’t been in contact with some slaughtered swine. I suppose someone could have advised me not to throw out the apple in spite of the core, but one might also say that one rotten apple spoils the whole bunch. I’m also unsure why we were meant to offer teachers appreciative apples in the first place, unless they’re predisposed to various vitamin deficiencies- in which case, perhaps that could explain the phrase an apple a day keeps the doctor away. It seems as if I might have heard something about this habit having a sort of strange symbolism stemming from the Golden Apple of Discord in Greek mythology where the phrase for the most beautiful was printed on a prized apple which caused a dispute of deities and led to the Trojan war. But then, that just seems as if it’d upset the apple cart. Come to think of it, apples have featured prominently in a few other fatefully unfortunate affairs, like Snow White slipping into a sinister sleeping spell after eating an apple, Alan Turing purportedly dying after eating a poisoned apple, the poet who was killed after eating an apple on stage instead of reading his poetry, or the slang forms of speech used to allude to excrement as alley apples, road apples, or the most dreaded green apple splatters. Contrarily though, Isak Newton’s gravitational epiphany was supposed to have been inspired by the falling action of a most auspicious apple. After allowing myself to meander through all these machinations, it almost seems as if apples are most often used to allegorically symbolize how enlightenment so often curses as it cures. Hmm… How do you like them apples?
