The Judgement of Paris

Hyginus: Fabula
Paridis Iudicium

It is said that, when Thetis married Peleus, Jupiter invited all the gods to a feast with the exception of Eris, (known as Strife). When, later, she suddenly arrived and was not admitted to the banquet, to make mischief she tossed an apple from the doorway into the middle, declaring that whoever was most beautiful should pick it up.

Juno, Venus and Minerva each began to claim to be the best looking, and when a bitter quarrel erupted between them, Jupiter ordered Mercury to take them to Alexander Paris on Mount Ida and to tell him to be the judge.

Juno promised Paris dominion over all lands and greater riches than all men if he favoured her; Minerva, that he would henceforth be braver than all and master of every artifice if she were to depart victorious; Venus however promised to arrange for him to marry the most beautiful of all women, Helen, daughter of Tyndareus.

Paris preferred the final offer to the earlier ones and declared Venus to be the most beautiful; as a result, Juno and Minerva became enemies of the Trojans.

Urged on by Venus, Alexander seduced Helen away from Sparta and Menelaos, his host, to Troy and married her; with her came two servants, the former queens Aethra and Thisadie whom Castor and Pollux had awarded to her when they were taken prisoner.