The Judgement of Paris

Peleus and Thetis were getting married. Peleus was a mortal man but Thetis was a goddess, a water
nymph who lived in the sea. Because Thetis was a goddess, all the other gods were invited to the
wedding except for one goddess called Eris. This was because she was the goddess of Strife or Trouble
and everywhere she went she liked to cause problems, the more serious the better. On the day of the
wedding all the guests were assembled at Mt Olympus celebrating the wedding of Peleus and Thetis,
when suddenly the door opened and Eris entered intent on causing mischief. In her hand she had an
apple, on it the words inscribed were ‘For the fairest’. She bent down and rolled the apple towards three
of the most beautiful of the goddesses, Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. Immediately they began to fight
over the apple. They wanted to be judged the most beautiful of the goddesses. They went to Zeus king
of the gods and asked him to decide who should have the apple. Zeus decided not to give his judgement;
perhaps he did not want to cause trouble for himself with the two goddesses who were not chosen! He
certainly did not want a row with his wife Hera. So he sent them to Mount Ida to ask the shepherd there
called Paris to decide who was the most beautiful of the goddesses. Zeus sent the messenger god
Hermes with them.

Now, Paris was no ordinary shepherd but was really the son of the King of Troy. There was a
prophecy told to his parents when he was born that when he grew up he would bring great destruction
to the city of Troy. So his parents Priam and Hecabe reluctantly and with great sorrow asked a servant to
kill Paris. The servant took baby Paris out onto the mountainside but he could not bring himself to kill
him so he gave him to a childless shepherd and his wife to look after. Paris grew up to be a very good
with animals, he was not only a good shepherd but was excellent with horses, and he was also extremely
handsome. When Paris saw the gods arriving he was frightened and when Hermes told him what he had
to do he was even more terrified. He knew that when he had made his judgement he would offend the
other two goddesses, and that might cause him a lot of trouble.

But, he had been asked to do this by almighty Zeus himself and you cannot refuse any request
made by the king of the gods. So reluctantly he set about his fearful task. Straight away the deities began
bribing him. Hera offered him land and riches. Athena offered him wisdom and victory in battle, and
Aphrodite the love goddess offered him the most beautiful woman in the world. Paris was really taken
with the idea of having the most beautiful woman in the world and so chose Aphrodite.

Now, Helen of Sparta was the lady in question. Unfortunately she was already married to
Menelaus king of Sparta. This did not stop Paris; he now found out at this time that he was really the son
of king of Troy and went to the city to see his parents. They were delighted that he was alive and when
he asked for a ship to go to Sparta they gladly gave it to him. His brothers and sisters were not too happy
as they remembered the prophecy told about him. Paris went to Sparta and King Menelaus welcomed
him to the palace. When Menelaus was away Paris kidnapped Helen and sailed away with her to Troy. It
is very likely that Aphrodite meddled in this by putting a spell on Helen to make her fall in love with Paris.
When Menelaus came home and found out that Paris had kidnapped his wife he was naturally furious.
He went to his brother Agamemnon who was king of Mycenae and asked him to help get Helen back.
They saw this as a huge insult to the men of Greece and asked the other kings and princes of Greece to
help get Helen back and teach the Trojans a lesson. They assembled a huge fleet of ships together. This
was the start of the famous Trojan War, which lasted ten years.