Hercules was once travelling along a narrow road when he saw lying on the ground in front of him what appeared to be an apple, and as he passed he stamped upon it with his heel. To his astonishment, instead of being crushed it doubled in size; and, on his attacking it again and smiting it with his club, it swelled up to an enormous size and blocked up the whole road. Upon this he dropped his club, and stood looking at it in amazement. Just then Minerva appeared, and said to him, “Leave it alone, my friend; that which you see before you is the apple of discord: if you do not meddle with it, it remains small as it was at first, but if you resort to violence it swells into the thing you see.”
有一回，赫拉克勒斯走在一条窄路上，看到了眼前有一个苹果，他走过的时候脚跟踩在了苹果上。令他惊奇的是，苹果没有被踩碎，反而变得大了一倍。于是他又踩了一脚，还用手中的大棍猛击，苹果越来越大，大到把整条路都给堵住了。他吃惊地丢掉了手中的大棍子，看着这个苹果。这时密涅瓦出现了，对赫拉克勒斯说：“快走吧，朋友，你看到的可是个祸种，如果你不和它纠缠，那它还是当初那样小小的，但你暴力以对，它就变成了现在的样子。”