Editing Judgement of Paris

{{Short description|Story from Greek mythology}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Original research|date=May 2021}}
[[File:Fresco - Wall Fragment with the Judgment of Paris.jpg|thumb|300px|Judgement of Paris, fresco from [[Pompeii]]]]
{{Trojan War}}

The '''Judgement of Paris''' is a story from [[Greek mythology]], which was one of the events that led up to the [[Trojan War]], and in later versions to the foundation of [[Rome]].<ref>{{cite web| first=Jimmy | last=Joe |title=Trojan War - Judgement of Paris|url=https://www.timelessmyths.com/classical/trojanwar.html#Judgement| publisher=Timeless Myths (Classical Mythology) |access-date=13 December 2019}}</ref>

[[Eris (mythology)|Eris]], the goddess of discord, was not invited to the wedding of [[Peleus]] and [[Thetis]]. In revenge, she brought a [[Apple of Discord|golden apple]], inscribed, "To the fairest one", which she threw into the wedding. Three guests, [[Hera]], [[Athena]] and [[Aphrodite]], after some disputation, agreed to have [[Paris of Troy]] choose the fairest one. Paris chose Aphrodite, she having [[bribe]]d him with the most beautiful mortal woman in the world, [[Helen of Sparta]], wife of [[Menelaus]]. Consequently, Paris carried Helen off to [[Troy]], and the Greeks invaded Troy for Helen's return. Eris's [[Apple of Discord]] was thus the instrumental ''[[casus belli]]'' (or her not being invited to the wedding in the first place) of the Trojan War.

==Sources of the episode==
[[File:Painting on terracotta panels of the judgement of Paris from Cerveteri (Boccanera tomb) - London BM 1889-0410-1 - 02.jpg|thumb|left|[[Paris (mythology)|Paris]] receives [[Hermes]] who leads [[Athena]], [[Hera]] and [[Aphrodite]], four women facing to the right. Painting on terracotta panels, 560–550 BC]]
[[File:Judgement of Paris Met 98.8.11 cca2 img by Marie-Lan Nguyen edited by K Vail.jpg|thumb|left|Attic black-figure neck amphora by [[Swing Painter]] (c. 540–530 BC), now in the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]]]

As with many mythological tales, details vary depending on the source. The brief allusion to the Judgement in the ''[[Iliad]]'' (24.25–30) shows that the episode initiating all the subsequent action was already familiar to its audience; a fuller version was told in the ''[[Cypria]]'', a [[Lost literary work|lost work]] of the [[Epic Cycle]], of which only fragments (and a reliable summary<ref>The outline of Proclus, summarized by Photius, found in English translation in ''Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica,'' ed. Evelyn-White, London and Cambridge, Massachusetts (Loeb series), new and revised edition 1936.</ref>) remain. The later writers [[Ovid]] (''Heroides'' 16.71ff, 149–152 and 5.35f), [[Lucian]] (''Dialogues of the Gods'' 20), [[Pseudo-Apollodorus]] (''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]]'', E.3.2) and [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]] (''Fabulae'' 92), retell the story with skeptical, ironic or popularizing agendas. It appeared wordlessly on the ivory and gold votive chest of the 7th-century BC tyrant [[Cypselus]] at [[Olympia, Greece|Olympia]], which was described by [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] as showing:

{{Blockquote|... Hermes bringing to [[Paris (mythology)|Alexander]] [i.e. Paris] the son of [[Priam]] the goddesses of whose beauty he is to judge, the inscription on them being: 'Here is Hermes, who is showing to Alexander, that he may arbitrate concerning their beauty, [[Hera]], [[Athena]] and [[Aphrodite]].<ref>Pausanias, ''[[Description of Greece]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+5.19.5 5.19.5].</ref>}}

The subject was favoured by ancient Greek vase painters as early as the sixth century BC,<ref>Kerenyi, fig. 68.</ref> and remained popular in Greek and Roman art, before enjoying a significant revival as an opportunity to show three female nudes, in the [[Renaissance]].

==Mythic narrative==
[[File:Golden Apple of Discord by Jacob Jordaens.jpg|thumb|left|''Golden Apple of Discord'' by [[Jacob Jordaens]]]]
It is recounted<ref>A synthesized account drawn from several cited sources is offered by Kerenyi, "Chapter VII, The Prelude to the Trojan War", especially pp. 312&ndash;314.</ref> that [[Zeus]] held a banquet in celebration of the [[wedding|marriage]] of [[Peleus]] and [[Thetis]] (parents of [[Achilles]]). However, [[Eris (mythology)|Eris]], goddess of discord, was not invited, for it was believed she would have made the party unpleasant for everyone. Angered by this snub, Eris arrived at the celebration with a [[Apple of Discord|golden apple]] from the [[Garden of the Hesperides]], which she threw into the proceedings as a prize of beauty.<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg002.perseus-eng1:e.3.2 E.3.2]</ref> According to some later versions, upon the apple was the inscription ''καλλίστῃ'' (''kallistēi'', "To/for the fairest one").<ref>{{cite web| first=Aaron | last=Atsma |title=THE JUDGEMENT OF PARIS|url=http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/JudgementParis.html| publisher=Theoi Project |access-date=13 December 2019}}</ref>

Three goddesses claimed the apple: [[Hera]], [[Athena]] and [[Aphrodite]]. They asked Zeus to judge which of them was fairest, and eventually he, reluctant to favour any claim himself, declared that [[Paris (mythology)|Paris]], a Trojan mortal, would judge their cases, for he had recently shown his exemplary fairness in a contest in which [[Ares]] in bull form had bested Paris's own prize bull, and the shepherd-prince had unhesitatingly awarded the prize to the god.<ref>[[Rawlinson Excidium Troie]]</ref>

[[File:The Judgement of Paris.jpg|thumb|upright|''The Judgement of Paris'' (1599) by [[Hendrick van Balen the Elder]]. [[Gemäldegalerie, Berlin]]]]
With [[Hermes]] as their guide, the three candidates bathed in the spring of Ida, then met Paris on [[Mount Ida]]. While Paris inspected them, each attempted with her powers to bribe him; Hera offered to make him king of Europe and Asia, Athena offered wisdom and skill in war, and Aphrodite, who had the [[Charites]] and the [[Horae|Horai]] to enhance her charms with flowers and song (according to a fragment of the ''Cypria'' quoted by [[Athenagoras of Athens]]), offered the world's most beautiful woman ([[Euripides]], ''Andromache'', l.284, ''Helena'' l. 676). This was [[Helen of Troy|Helen]] of [[Sparta]], wife of the Greek king [[Menelaus]]. Paris accepted Aphrodite's bribe and awarded the apple to her, receiving Helen as well as the enmity of the Greeks and especially of Hera. The Greeks' expedition to retrieve Helen from Paris in [[Troy]] is the mythological basis of the [[War of Troy|Trojan War]]. According to some stories, [[Helen of Troy]] was kidnapped by Paris and a group of Trojans; in others, she simply followed Paris willingly because she felt affection for him, too.

[[File:Joachim Wtewael - The Judgment of Paris (1615).jpg|thumb|left|[[Joachim Wtewael]], c. 1615, with the wedding [[Feast of the Gods (art)|feast of the gods]] in the background]]

According to a tradition suggested by Alfred J. Van Windekens,<ref>Van Windekens, in ''Glotta'' '''36''' (1958), pp. 309–11.</ref> "cow-eyed" Hera was indeed the most beautiful, before Aphrodite showed up. However, Hera was the goddess of the marital order and of cuckolded wives, amongst other things. She was often portrayed as the shrewish, jealous wife of Zeus, who himself often escaped from her controlling ways by cheating on her with other women, mortal and immortal. She had fidelity and chastity in mind and was careful to be modest when Paris was inspecting her. Aphrodite was the goddess of [[Human female sexuality|sexuality]], and was effortlessly more sexual and charming than any goddess. Thus, she was able to sway Paris into judging her as the fairest. Athena's beauty is rarely commented on in the myths, perhaps because Greeks held her up as an asexual being, able to "overcome" her "womanly weaknesses" to become both wise and talented in war (both considered male domains by the Greeks). Her rage at losing makes her join the Greeks in the battle against Paris's Trojans, a key event in the turning point of the war.

==In art==
[[File:Lucas Cranach the Elder - Judgment of Paris.jpg|thumb|upright|''The Judgement of Paris'' (1530) by [[Lucas Cranach the Elder]] in the [[Saint Louis Art Museum]]]]

The subject became popular in art from the late [[Middle Ages]] onwards. All three goddesses were usually shown nude, though in ancient art only Aphrodite is ever unclothed, and not always.<ref>Bull, pp. 346–47</ref> The opportunity for three female nudes was a large part of the attraction of the subject. It appeared in [[illuminated manuscript]]s and was popular in decorative art, including 15th-century Italian inkstands and other works in [[maiolica]], and ''[[cassone|cassoni]]''.<ref>Bull, p. 345</ref> As a subject for easel paintings, it was more common in Northern Europe, although [[Marcantonio Raimondi]]'s [[engraving]] of c. 1515, probably based on a drawing by [[Raphael]], and using a composition derived from a Roman [[sarcophagus]], was a highly influential treatment, which made Paris's [[Phrygian cap]] an attribute in most later versions.<ref>Bull, p. 346</ref>

The subject was painted many (supposedly 23) times by [[Lucas Cranach the Elder]], and was especially attractive to [[Northern Mannerist]] painters. [[Rubens]] painted [[The Judgement of Paris (Rubens)|several compositions]] of the subject at different points in his career. [[Watteau]] and [[Angelica Kauffman]] were among the artists who painted the subject in the 18th century. The Judgement of Paris was painted frequently by [[academic art]]ists of the 19th century, and less often by their more progressive contemporaries such as [[Renoir]] and [[Paul Cézanne|Cézanne]]. Later artists who have painted the subject include [[André Lhote]], [[Enrique Simonet]] (''[[El Juicio de Paris (Simonet)|El Juicio de Paris]]'' 1904), and [[Salvador Dalí]].

[[Ivo Saliger]] (1939), Adolf Ziegler (1939), and Joseph Thorak (1941) also used the classic myth to propagate German renewal during the Nazi period.<ref>{{cite web|title=Nazi Art|url=https://www.studyblue.com/notes/note/n/nazi-art/deck/21857456|publisher=StudyBlue Inc.|access-date=13 December 2019|archive-date=13 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191213183940/https://www.studyblue.com/notes/note/n/nazi-art/deck/21857456|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==In other media==
[[File:Simon Vouet, Three Goddesses.jpg|thumb|Three goddesses at the Judgement of Paris painted by [[Simon Vouet]]]]

The story is the basis of an opera, ''[[The Judgement of Paris (opera)|The Judgement of Paris]]'', with a [[libretto]] by [[William Congreve]], that was set to music by four composers in London, 1700–1701. [[Thomas Arne]] composed a highly successful score to the same libretto in 1742. The opera ''[[Le cinesi|Le Cinesi]]'' (''The Chinese Women'') by [[Christoph Willibald Gluck]] (1754) concludes with a ballet, ''The Judgement of Paris'', sung as a vocal quartet. [[Francesco Cilea]]'s 1902 opera ''[[Adriana Lecouvreur]]'' also includes a ''Judgement of Paris'' ballet sequence.

The story is the basis of an earlier opera, ''[[Il pomo d'oro]]'', in a prologue and five acts by the Italian composer [[Antonio Cesti]], with a libretto by Francesco Sbarra (1611–1668).

[[File:Αχίλλειο στην Κέρκυρα στον οικισμό Γαστουρίου(photosiotas) (62).jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|''Aphrodite taunts Hera and Athena with the Apple'', relief in the [[Achilleion (Corfu)|Achilleion]], [[Corfu]].]]

==In Discordianism==
''Kallistēi'' is the word of the ancient Greek language inscribed on [[Eris (mythology)|Eris]]'s [[Apple of Discord]]. In Greek, the word is ''καλλίστῃ'' (the [[dative]] [[grammatical number|singular]] of the [[grammatical gender|feminine]] [[superlative]] of καλος, [[beauty|beautiful]]). Its meaning can be rendered "to the fairest one". ''Calliste'' (Καλλίστη; Mod. Gk. ''Kallisti'') is also an ancient name for the isle of [[Santorini|Thera]].

The word ''Kallisti'' (Modern Greek) written on a golden apple, has become a principal symbol of [[Discordianism]], a post-modernist religion. In non-[[philology|philological]] texts (such as Discordian ones) the word is usually spelled as ''καλλιστι''. Most versions of ''[[Principia Discordia]]'' actually spell it as καλλιχτι, but this is definitely incorrect; in the afterword of the 1979 [[Loompanics]] edition of ''Principia'', [[Gregory Hill (writer)|Gregory Hill]] says that was because on the IBM typewriter he used, not all [[Greek alphabet|Greek letters]] coincided with [[Latin alphabet|Latin]] ones, and he didn't know enough of the letters to spot the mistake. Zeus's failure to invite Eris is referred to as ''The Original Snub'' in Discordian mythology.<ref>{{cite web|title=Principia Discordia|url=https://principiadiscordia.com/| publisher=Discordian Society |access-date=10 May 2010}}</ref>

== Classical literature sources ==
[[File:Getty Villa - Collection (5305374810).jpg|thumb|Storage jar depicting the Judgement of Paris (Athens, c. 360 BC)]]
Chronological listing of classical literature sources for The Judgement of Paris, including the Apple of Discord:

* Homer, ''Iliad'' 24. 25 ff (trans. Murray) (Greek epic, 8th century BC)
* Euripides, ''Iphigenia in Aulis'' 1290 ff (trans. Coleridge) (Greek tragedy, 5th century BC)
* Euripides, ''Hecuba'' 629 ff (trans. Coleridge)
* Euripides, ''Hecuba'' 669 ff
* Euripides, ''The Trojan Women'' 924 ff (trans. Coleridge)
* Euripides, ''Helen'' 20 ff (trans. Coleridge)
* Euripides, ''Helen'' 675 ff
* Euripides, ''Andromache'' 274 ff (trans. Coleridge)
* Gorgias, ''The Encomium on Helen'' 5 (''The Classical Weekly'', 15 February 1913, trans. Van Hook p.&nbsp;123) (Greek philosophy, 5th century BC)
* P. Oxy. 663, Cratinus, ''Argument of Cratinus' Dionysalexandrus'' 2. 12–9 (trans. Grenfell & Hunt) (Greek poetry, 5th century BC)
* Scholiast on P. Oxy. 663, ''Argument of Cratinus' Dionysalexandrus'' 2. 12–9 (''The Oxyrhynchus Papyri'', trans. Grenfell & Hunt 1904, Vol 4, p.&nbsp;70)
* Isocrates, ''Helen'' 41–52 (trans. Norlin) (Greek philosophy, 4th century BC)
* Plato, ''Republic'' 2. 379e ff (trans. Shorey) (Greek philosophy, 4th century BC)
* Scholiast on Plato, ''Republic'' 2. 379e ff (''Plato The Republic'' Books I–V, trans. Shorey, Vol. 5, 1937 1930{{clarify|reason=which is it?|date=May 2025}} p.&nbsp;186)
* Aristotle, ''Rhetorica'' 1. 6. 20 ff (trans. Rhys Roberts) (Greek philosophy, 4th century BC)
* Aristotle, ''Rhetorica'' 2. 23. 12 ff
* Xenophon, ''Banquet'' (or ''Symposium'') 4. 19. 20 ff (trans. Brownson) (Greek philosophy, 4th century BC)
* Lycophron, ''Alexandria'' 93 ff, (trans. A. Mair) (Greek epic, 3rd century BC)
* Scholiast on ''Alexandria'' 93 ff (''Callimachus and Lycophron'', trans. A. Mair; ''Aratus'', trans. G. Mair, 1921, p.&nbsp;501)
* Callimachus, ''Hymn'' 5. 17 ff (trans. Mair) (Greek poet, 3rd century BC)
* Herodas, ''Mime'' 1. 35 (trans. Headlam ed. Knox) (Greek poetry, 3rd century BC)
* Catullus, ''The Poems of Catullus'' 61. 17 (trans. Cornish) (Latin poetry, 1st century BC)
* Diodorus Siculus, ''Library of History'' 17. 7. 4 ff (trans. Oldfather) (Greek history, 1st century BC)
* Scholiast on Diodorus Siculus, ''Library of History'' 17. 7. 4 ff (Diodorus of Sicily, trans. Oldfather, 1963, Vol. 8, pp.&nbsp;135)
* Horace, ''Carminum'' 3. 3. 19 (trans. Bennett) (Roman lyric poetry, 1st century BC)
* Scholiast on Horace, ''Carminum'' 3. 3. 19 (''Horace Odes and Erodes'' trans. Bennett 1901 p.&nbsp;312)
* Cicero, ''The Letters to his Friends'' 1. 9. 13 ff (trans. Williams) (Roman epigram, 1st century BC)
* Ovid, ''Heroides'' 16. 137 (trans. Showerman) (Roman poetry 1st century BC to 1st century AD)
* Ovid, ''Heroides'' 17. 115 ff
* Ovid, ''Fasti'' 4. 120 ff (trans. Frazer) (Roman epic, 1st century BC to 1st century AD)
* Ovid, ''Fasti'' 6. 44 ff
* Strabo, ''Geography'' 13. 1. 51 (trans. Jones) (Greek geography, 1st century BC to 1st century AD)
* Lucan, ''Pharsalia'' 9. 971 ff (trans. Riley) (Roman poetry, 1st century AD)
* Scholiast on Lucan, ''Pharsalia'' 9. 971 (''The Pharsalia of Lucan'', Riley, 1853, p.&nbsp;378)
* Petronius, ''Satyricon'' 138 ff (trans. Heseltine) (Roman satire, 1st century AD)
* Scholiast on Petronius, ''Satyricon'' 138 ff (''Petronius and Seneca Apocolocyntosis'' trans. Heseltine & Rouse 1925 p.&nbsp;318)
* Pliny, ''Natural History'' 34. 19. 77 ff (trans. Rackham) (Roman history, 1st century AD)
* Lucian, ''The Carousal, or The Lapiths'' 35 ff (trans. Harmon) (Assyrian satire, 2nd century AD)
* Lucian, ''The Judgement of the Goddesses'' 1–16 (end) (trans. Harmon) (Assyrian satire, 2nd century AD)
* Lucian, ''The Dance'' 45 ff (trans. Harmon)
* Lucian, ''Dialogues of the Sea-Gods'' 301 ff (trans. Harmon)
* Pseudo-Lucian, ''Charidemus'' 10 ff (trans. Macleod)
* Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''Epitome'' 3. 3 (trans. Frazer) (Greek mythography, 2nd century AD)
* Scholiast on Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''Epitome'' 3. 3 (''Apollodorus The Library'', trans. Frazer, 1921, Vol. 2, pp.&nbsp;172–73)
* Pseudo-Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' 92 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythography, 2nd century AD)
* Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' 3. 18. 12 ff (trans. Frazer) (Greek travelogue, 2nd century AD)
* Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' 5. 19. 5 ff
* Apuleius, ''The Golden Ass'' 4. 30 ff (trans. Adlington & Gaselee) (Latin prose, 2nd century AD)
* Apuleius, ''The Golden Ass'' 10. 30–33 (trans. Adlington & Gaselee)
* Longus, ''Daphnis and Chloe'' Book 3 (The Athenian Society's Publications IV: ''Longus'' 1896 p.&nbsp;108) (Greek romance, 2nd century AD)
* P. Oxy. 1231, Sappho, Book 1 Fragment 1. 13 ff (''The Oxyrhynchus Papyri'', trans. Grenfell & Hunt, 1914, Vol. 10, p.&nbsp;40) (Greek poetry, 2nd century AD)
* Clement of Alexandria, ''Exhortation to the Greeks'' 2. 29 P. ff (trans. Butterworth) (Christian philosophy, 2nd to 3rd centuries AD)
* Tertullian, ''Apologeticus'' 15. 15 ff (trans. Souter & Mayor) (Christian philosophy C2nd to C3rd centuries AD)
* Athenaeus, ''Banquet of the Learned'' 12. 2 (trans. Yonge) (Greek rhetoric, 2nd to 3rd AD)
* Psudeo-Proclus, ''Cypria'' (''Hesiod the Homeric Hymns and Homerica'' trans. Evelyn-White pp.&nbsp;488–91) (2nd to 5th centuries AD)
* Colluthus, ''The Rape of Helen'' 59–210 (trans. Mair) (Greek epic, 5th to 6th centuries AD)
* Scholiast on Colluthus, ''The Rape of Helen'' 59 ff (''Oppian Colluthus Tryphiodorus'', trans. Mair, 1928, pp.&nbsp;546–47)
* Servius, ''Servius In Vergilii Aeneidos'' 1. 27 ff (trans. Thilo) (Greek commentary, 4th to 11th centuries AD)
* First Vatican Mythographer, ''Scriptores rerum mythicarum'' 208 (ed. Bode) (Greek and Roman mythography 9th AD to 11th centuries AD)
* Second Vatican Mythographer, ''Scriptores rerum mythicarum'' 205 (ed. Bode) (Greek and Roman mythography 11th century AD)
* Tzetzes, ''Scholia on Lycophron'' ''Cassandra'' (or ''Alexandria'') 93 (''Scholia on Lycophron'', ed. Müller, 1811, p.&nbsp;93) (Byzantine commentary, 12th century AD)

==See also==
*[[Feast of the Gods (art)]]
*[[Trojan War]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], ''Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes.'' Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text;jsessionid=C431BA809CA4DEA22A15DA9C666F3400?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0022%3atext%3dLibrary Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* Bull, Malcolm, ''The Mirror of the Gods, How Renaissance Artists Rediscovered the Pagan Gods'', Oxford UP, 2005, {{ISBN|0-19-521923-6}}.
* [[Károly Kerényi|Kerényi, Carl]], ''The Heroes of the Greeks'', Thames and Hudson, London, 1959. [https://archive.org/details/heroes-of-the-greeks-carl-kerenyi/mode/2up Online version at the Internet Archive].
* [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes.'' Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+1.1.1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].

==External links==
{{Commons category|Judgement of Paris}}
*[http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/JudgementParis.html The Judgment of Paris]
*[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4928 Full-text of Bulfinch's Mythology]

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[[Category:Judgment of Paris| ]]
[[Category:Deeds of Aphrodite]]
[[Category:Deeds of Athena]]
[[Category:Deeds of Hera]]
[[Category:Deeds of Hermes]]
[[Category:Deeds of Zeus]]
[[Category:Eris (mythology)]]
[[Category:Trojan War]]

[[el:Πάρις#Η «Κρίση του Πάρι»]]