The Apple Tree

In the Pilot Regina tells Emma that she’s been taking care of the tree since she was a little girl. Regina’s lost love could’ve been magically “inserted” into the tree, though. I searched for a story in Greek mythology where someone is turned into a tree and found this one:

Apollo and Daphne

The curse of Apollo, the god of the sun and music, was brought onto him when he insulted the young Eros (a.k.a. Cupid) for playing with bow and arrows.

Apollo was a great warrior and said to him, “What have you to do with warlike weapons, saucy boy? Leave them for hands worthy of them. Behold the conquest I have won by means of them over the vast serpent who stretched his poisonous body over acres of the plain! Be content with your torch, child, and kindle up your flames, as you call them, where you will, but presume not to meddle with my weapons.”

The petulant Eros took two arrows, one of gold and one of lead. The gold one was supposed to incite love, while the lead one was supposed to incite hatred. With the leaden shaft, Eros shot the nymph Daphne and with the golden one, he shot Apollo through the heart. Apollo was seized with love for the maiden, Daphne, and she in turn abhorred him. In fact, she spurned her many potential lovers, preferring instead woodland sports and exploring the woods. Her father, Peneus, demanded that she get married so that she may give him grandchildren. However, she begged her father to let her remain unmarried, like Apollo’s twin sister, Artemis.

He warned her saying, “Your own face will forbid it.” By saying this he meant that she was too beautiful to keep all her potential lovers away forever.

Apollo continually followed her, begging her to stay, but the nymph continued her flight. They were evenly matched in the race until Eros intervened and helped Apollo gain upon Daphne.

Seeing that Apollo was bound to catch her, she called upon her father, “Help me, Peneus! Open the earth to enclose me, or change my form, which has brought me into this danger!”

Suddenly, her skin turned into bark, her hair became leaves, and her arms were transformed into branches. She stopped running as her feet became rooted to the ground. Apollo embraced the branches, but even the branches shrank away from him. Since Apollo could no longer take her as his wife, he vowed to tend her as his tree, and promised that her leaves would decorate the heads of leaders as crowns, and that her leaves were also to be depicted on weapons. Apollo also used his powers of eternal youth and immortality to render her ever green. Since then, the leaves of the Bay laurel tree have never known decay.

It wasn’t the story I thought I knew, gotta continue searching, but it’s interesting. The idea exists.

I have to admit, this theory is growing on me. And it would make sense considering one of the upcoming episodes is called Apple as Red as Blood. And it adds an interesting twist to the reason EQ would choose to poison an apple to use as a weapon to kill SW. Interesting also that something Mr. Gold does to annoy Regina is to take a single bite out of one of the apples and then toss it over his shoulder onto the ground.

I think I like this idea! I like it even more because that story mentions Cupid, so if my guess about that arrow Snow used having been from him is right, borrowing from this legend could be a way they could work it into the show. 😉

Also like that it mentions how the resulting tree was evergreen, because Regina’s tree has been flourishing whenever we’ve seen it, (and she replied “not for long” when Mr Gold said it was a mess after Emma hacked the branch off, so maybe it re-grows quicker than a usual tree?).

Though, yes, Regina said she’s had the tree since she was a child, but mia’s suggestion that he could have just been made part of an already existing tree would take care of that.

And I like rumplegoldfan’s thought that it’d explain why EQ’s weapon of choice to take out Snow was an apple. If Snow was somehow responsible for Regina’s love being turned into an apple tree, an apple used as the weapon for revenge is quite poetic.

The more I think about this possibility, the more I love it.

The idea that Cora cursed him to be trapped in the tree is great. Another possibility is perhaps Regina finds out that Cora is gonna kill him, so she goes to Rumple for a way to save him and he traps him in the tree because it's the only way he can stay alive and Regina can still be with him. That could play into the part from the legend about Daphne begging to be saved and being turned into a tree. Maybe in our version of the story, our Daphne begs for her love to be saved.