Judgement of Paris - Mythic Narrative

Mythic Narrative

It is recounted that Zeus held a banquet in celebration of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis (parents of Achilles). However, Eris, goddess of discord was not invited, for she would have made the party unpleasant for everyone. Angered by this snub, Eris arrived at the celebration with a golden apple from the Garden of the Hesperides, which she threw into the proceedings, upon which was the inscription καλλίστῃ (kallistēi, "for the fairest one").

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, 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.

Thus it happened that, with Hermes as their guide, the three candidates bathed in the spring of Ida, then confronted Paris on Mount Ida in the climactic moment that is the crux of the tale. Each goddess wanted to be judged the fairest, so they each undressed and presented themselves to Paris naked, in hopes of appearing more sexual than the other two. 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 Horai to enhance her charms with flowers and song (according to a fragment of the Cypria quoted by Athenagoras), offered the world's most beautiful woman (Euripides, Andromache, l.284, Helena l. 676). This was Helen of Sparta, wife of the Greek king Menelaus. Paris accepted Aphrodite's gift 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 Trojan War.

The mytheme of the Judgement of Paris naturally offered artists the opportunity to depict a sort of beauty contest, with three beautiful female nudes trying to appease a male judge, but the myth, at least since Euripides, rather concerns a choice among the gifts that each goddess embodies. The bribery involved is ironic and a late ingredient, so the goddesses' beauty, nudity, and sex appeal may have influenced Paris more originally, rather than the reward they may have given.

Like many myths, there are variations of the Judgment of Paris. Perhaps the most varied element is the nudity of the goddesses. One variation that states that all three goddesses remained fully clothed, but it is mostly agreed that either only Aphrodite undressed, or else all three goddesses did. According to one variation, Zeus had given Paris permission to set any conditions he wanted, and he requested to see the goddesses naked. Another equally popular version states that the goddesses themselves chose to remove their clothing. According to the ancient Greek poets Apuleius and Collothus, only Aphrodite undressed (and in the case of Collothus, she merely "bares her breast"). This is a section from The Golden Ass by Apuleius, depicting a religious theatrical reenactment of Paris' Judgement:

"Next appeared a worthy-looking girl, similar in appearance to the goddess, for her hair was ordered with a white diadem, and she carried a sceptre. A second girl then burst in, whom you would have recognized as . Her head was covered with a gleaming helmet which was itself crowned with an olive-wreath; she bore a shield and brandished a spear, simulating the goddess' fighting role. After them a third girl entered, her beauty visibly unsurpassed. Her charming, ambrosia-like complexion intimated that she represented the earlier when that goddess was still a maiden. She vaunted her unblemished beauty by appearing naked and unclothed except for a thin silken garment veiling her entrancing lower parts. An inquisitive gust of air would at one moment with quite lubricious affection blow this garment aside, so that when wafted away it revealed her virgin bloom; at another moment it would wantonly breathe directly upon it, clinging tightly and vividly outlining the pleasurable prospect of her lower limbs. The goddess' appearance offered contrasting colours to the eye, for her body was dazzling white, intimating her descent from heaven and her robe was dark blue, denoting her emergence from the sea...But now becomingly took the centre of the stage to the great acclamation of the theatre, and smiled sweetly... still more affectingly began to gently stir herself; with gradual, lingering steps, restrained swaying of the hips, and slow inclination of the head she began to advance, her refined movements matching the soft wounds of the flutes. Occasionally her eyes alone would dance, as at one moment she gently lowered her lids, and at another imperiously signalled with threatening glances. At the moment when she met the gaze of the judge, the beckoning of her arms seemed to hold the promise that if he preferred her over the other goddesses, she would present Paris with a bride of unmatched beauty, one like herself. There and then the Phrygian youth spontaneously awarded the girl the golden apple in his hand, which signalled the vote for victory . . . Once Paris had completed that judgement of his, and retired from the stage, downcast and apparently resentful, indicating by gestures their anger at being rejected. on the other hand was elated and smiling, and registered her joy by dancing in company with the entire chorus."

Details of the nudity of each goddess, though much less described, is also an element that varies. Almost all works of art depict the three goddesses nude and bare-breasted, but covering their genitals, although some bolder artists show their female parts. Most literary depictions merely describe the goddesses as "nude," "naked," or else the matter is not addressed at all.

In the above excerpt, the actress playing Aphrodite enters the stage, naked except for a thin silken robe that she had taken off her shoulders and only holds over her genitals for modesty. A personified wind mischievously pulls the cloth away, displaying her vulva to the appreciative audience. Her nudity is not addressed throughout the rest of the play, so it cannot be determined whether she retrieved her robe and covered herself or discarded her clothing entirely to appear fully nude when presenting herself before Paris. If she did the latter, then it is very possible that, after the judgment, she danced naked in front of the audience as well, accompanied by the chorus.

According to a tradition suggested by Alfred J. Van Windekens, "cow-eyed" Hera was indeed the most objectively beautiful, not Aphrodite. 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, though not as objectively beautiful as Hera, was the goddess of sexuality, and was not concerned about modesty or chastity. She was effortlessly more sexual and charming and eagerly undressed for Paris, and she did not mind displaying her breasts and vulva for him to see. Thus, she was able to sway Paris into judging her the fairest. Athena's beauty is rarely commented in in the myths, perhaps because Greeks held her up as an asexual being, being able to "overcome" her "womanly weaknesses" in order 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.

There is also a less popular variation in which Artemis is one of the contestants, instead of Hera.