Latest Miniature Painting: Malum

I made another miniature painting yetserday, for my series of miniature paintings priced at under 100 dollars. Mālum is the Latin word for apple, which is spelled the same (though pronounced differently) than the word Malum, which is an evil or misfortune. Scholars believe this is why the apple was used as the 'forbidden fruit' in the Adam and Eve myth (and also as a reference to the Greek myth of the Golden Apple).

From Wikipedia

Apples appear in many religious traditions, often as a mystical or forbidden fruit. One of the problems identifying apples in religion, mythology and folktales is that as late as the 17th century, the word "apple" was used as a generic term for all (foreign) fruit other than berries, but including nuts. This term may even have extended to plant galls, as they were thought to be of plant origin (see oak apple). For instance, when tomatoes were introduced into Europe, they were called "love apples". In one Old English work, cucumbers are called eorþæppla (lit. "earth-apples'), just as in French, Dutch, Hebrew, Persian and Swiss German, the words for potatoes mean "earth-apples" in English. In some languages, oranges are called "golden apples" or "Chinese apples". Datura is called 'thorn-apple".

"...In Latin, the words for 'apple' ("mālum") and for 'evil' ("malum") are nearly identical. This may also have influenced the apple's becoming interpreted as the biblical 'forbidden fruit' in the commonly used Latin translation called "Vulgate" 

Mālum
5 x 7 inches
ink and acrylic on Aquabord
$99 framed for sale. SOLD
www.lynnetteshelley.com

And here's a photo of my own little Malum. Magnus, just 'cause...