Judgment of Paris. The Judgement of Paris is a story from Greek mythology, which was one of the events that led up to the Trojan War and to the foundation of Rome.
As with many mythological tales, details vary depending on the source. The brief allusion to the Judgement in the Iliad 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 work of the Epic Cycle, of which only fragments remain.
The later writers Ovid, Lucian, Pseudo-Apollodorus and Hyginus, 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, which was described by Pausanias as showing: Hermes bringing to Alexander 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.
The subject was favoured by painters of red-figure pottery as early as the sixth century BC, and remained popular in Greek and Roman art, before enjoying a significant revival, as an opportunity to show three female nudes, in the Renaissance. It is recounted that Zeus held a banquet in celebration of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis.
However, Eris, goddess of discord was not invited, for it was believed
As with many mythological tales, details vary depending on the source. The brief allusion to the Judgement in the Iliad 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 work of the Epic Cycle, of which only fragments remain.
The later writers Ovid, Lucian, Pseudo-Apollodorus and Hyginus, 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, which was described by Pausanias as showing: Hermes bringing to Alexander 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.
The subject was favoured by painters of red-figure pottery as early as the sixth century BC, and remained popular in Greek and Roman art, before enjoying a significant revival, as an opportunity to show three female nudes, in the Renaissance. It is recounted that Zeus held a banquet in celebration of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis.
However, Eris, goddess of discord was not invited, for it was believed
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