Discordia was the goddess of confusion, discord and chaos. Equivalent to the Greek Eris. Her name comes from the word discors which means “discord”.
She was an important deity of the underworld who created inconsistencies in life, caused wars and feuds between families and friends.
It had two manifestations: threatening and gentle: destructive dissent, causing wars, and creative dissent, being the spirit of competition, stimulating urgent action. It made the carpenter envy the carpenter, that each artist envied the other, and at the same time loved his own work. She was presented as a winged figure of a woman. In a military context, it represented rebellion.
Discordia was shown to be cruel and bellicose. Virgil mentions that the goddess lived at the entrance to Hell. She was also to be happy to take part in all fights, wearing a torn coat.
Today, Discordianism refers to the cult of the goddess. It is a contemporary philosophical trend aimed at undermining the very essence of religiosity by simulating one of them.
- Kempiński Andrzej, Encyklopedia mitologii ludów indoeuropejskich, Warszawa 2001
- Schmidt Joël, Słownik mitologii greckiej i rzymskiej, Katowice 1996
