Eris was adopted rather than inherited. Discordianism has no line of descent from any Greek cult, no reconstructed rite and no claim to one, and it is careful to say so — which distinguishes it sharply from the Hellenic reconstructionist movements that were forming around the same time and meant it. What Hill and Thornley took was the story and the grievance. She is addressed in the Principia in the second person, given lines of dialogue, and portrayed as more amused than angry. Discordians vary widely on whether she is a person, a personification, a working hypothesis or a character, and the tradition has never needed to decide, since the fifth commandment covers the question. She is the only figure the line names, and the one thing every Discordian shares is the greeting: Hail Eris.