Shut out of the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, Eris threw an apple inscribed for the fairest — and a shepherd-prince on Mount Ida, asked to choose between three goddesses, chose the one who promised him Helen, and so chose the war.1
The uninvited goddess
To the wedding of Peleus and Thetis Zeus invited all the gods except Eris, goddess of discord. Arriving late and turned away from the banquet, she threw an apple through the door, saying that the fairest should take it. Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena each claimed the prize, and a huge quarrel broke out among them, until Zeus ordered Hermes to lead the three to Mount Ida, to Paris Alexander, and bid him judge.2
Three bribes on Ida
Each goddess offered the shepherd-prince her own bribe. Hera promised that he would rule over all the lands and be pre-eminent in wealth; Athena, that he would be bravest of mortals and skilled in every craft; Aphrodite, that she would give him in marriage Helen, daughter of Tyndareus, most beautiful of all women. Paris preferred the last gift and judged Aphrodite the fairest. For this Hera and Athena turned hostile to the Trojans — and at Aphrodite's prompting, Paris took Helen from his host Menelaus in Lacedaemon and carried her to Troy.3
The folly of Alexander
Homer never tells the tale outright, but in the last book of the Iliad it surfaces as a grim aside: holy Ilios and Priam and his folk remained hateful to Hera and Athena because of the sin of Alexander, who put reproach upon those goddesses when they came to his steading, and gave precedence to her who furthered his fatal lustfulness.4
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How the centuries saw it
The Judgement of Paris
Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1632–1635
Rubens' National Gallery canvas — Mercury beside the shepherd-prince as he awards the golden apple to Venus, while Juno and Minerva wait for the verdict that will burn Troy.
The Judgement of Paris
Lucas Cranach the Elder, c. 1537–1540
Cranach's German Renaissance Ida: armoured Paris between the three goddesses and the apple of Eris — the contest restaged as courtly spectacle before the war.
The Judgement of Paris
Enrique Simonet, 1904
Simonet's Málaga canvas sets Hera, Athena and Aphrodite before the herdsman among his flock — the seed of the Trojan War under Ida's trees.
The Judgement of Paris
Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1528
An earlier Cranach reading of the same choice — Paris in armour, the goddesses unveiled, Mercury's apple still unawarded.