page_title: Trojan War
section_title: Judgement of Paris
hierarchical_section_title: Trojan War / Legend / Origins of the war / Judgement of Paris
caption_attribution_description: English: Thetis gives her son Achilles his weapons newly forged by Hephaestus, detail of an Attic black-figure hydria, ca. 575 BC–550 BC. Français&#160;: Thétis donne à son fils Achille ses armes nouvellement forgées par Héphaïstos, détail d'une hydrie attique à figures noires, v. 575–550 av. J.-C. La scène montre plusieurs personnages debout. Au centre, Achille, barbu, tourné vers la droite, tient une lance dans sa main droite. De la main gauche, il prend une couronne que lui donne la déesse Thétis, sa mère, qui lui fait face sur la droite. Thétis, vêtue d'une tunique longue, a les cheveux longs. Elle remet la couronne à Achille de la main droite. Dans sa main gauche, elle tient un grand bouclier rond qu'elle s'apprête à lui remettre. Sur la gauche, derrière Achille, un guerrier en armure complète portant des protège-genoux, un bouclier rond, un casque à panache et une lance se tient tourné vers la gauche, tournant le dos à la scène. Derrière Thétis sur la droite, deux servantes aux cheveux longs, vêtues de tuniques longues, s'avancent en portant d'autres pièces d'équipement destinées à Achille. La première porte la cuirasse, la deuxième tient un casque à panache. Chacune tient l'objet dans sa main droite, et, dans la main gauche, tient un récipient suspendu au bout d'une cordelette et destiné sans doute à accomplir du rituel. Le bord de la scène à gauche et à droite est marqué par un motif floral. Sur le dessus, la scène est bordée d'une double ligne horizontale surmontée de rangées de points noirs. Des inscriptions grecques inscrites verticalement entre les personnages nomment Achille, Thétis, le guerrier de gauche et la première servante.
context_page_description: In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably Homer's Iliad. The core of the Iliad describes a period of four days and two nights in the tenth year of the decade-long siege of Troy; the Odyssey describes the journey home of Odysseus, one of the war's heroes. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of epic poems, which have survived through fragments. Episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets including Virgil and Ovid.
  The war originated from a quarrel between the goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, after Eris, the goddess of strife and discord, gave them a golden apple, sometimes known as the Apple of Discord, marked "for the fairest". Zeus sent the goddesses to Paris, who judged that Aphrodite, as the "fairest", should receive the apple.
context_section_description: Zeus came to learn from either Themis or Prometheus, after Heracles had released him from Caucasus, that, like his father Cronus, he would be overthrown by one of his sons. Another prophecy stated that a son of the sea-nymph Thetis, with whom Zeus fell in love after gazing upon her in the oceans off the Greek coast, would become greater than his father. Possibly for one or both of these reasons, Thetis was betrothed to an elderly human king, Peleus son of Aeacus, either upon Zeus' orders, or because she wished to please Hera, who had raised her.
  All of the gods were invited to Peleus and Thetis' wedding and brought many gifts, except Eris (the goddess of discord), who was stopped at the door by Hermes, on Zeus' order. Insulted, she threw from the door a gift of her own: a golden apple (το μήλον της έριδος) on which was inscribed the word καλλίστῃ Kallistēi ("To the fairest"). The apple was claimed by Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. They quarreled bitterly over it, and none of the other gods would venture an opinion favoring one, for fear of earning the enmity of the other two. Eventually, Zeus ordered Hermes to lead the three goddesses to Paris, a prince of Troy, who, unaware of his ancestry, was being raised as a shepherd in Mount Ida, because of a prophecy that he would be the downfall of Troy. After bathing in the spring of Ida, the goddesses appeared to him naked, either for the sake of winning or at Paris' request. Paris was unable to decide between them, so the goddesses resorted to bribes. Athena offered Paris wisdom, skill in battle, and the abilities of the greatest warriors; Hera offered him political power and control of all of Asia; and Aphrodite offered him the love of the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta. Paris awarded the apple to Aphrodite, and, after several adventures, returned to Troy, where he was recognized by his royal family.
  Peleus and Thetis bore a son, whom they named Achilles. It was foretold that he would either die of old age after an uneventful life, or die young in a battlefield and gain immortality through poetry. Furthermore, when Achilles was nine years old, Calchas had prophesied that Troy could not again fall without his help. A number of sources credit Thetis with attempting to make Achilles immortal when he was an infant. Some of these state that she held him over fire every night to burn away his mortal parts and rubbed him with ambrosia during the day, but Peleus discovered her actions and stopped her. According to some versions of this story, Thetis had already killed several sons in this manner, and Peleus' action therefore saved his son's life. Other sources state that Thetis bathed Achilles in the Styx, the river that runs to the underworld, making him invulnerable wherever he was touched by the water. Because she had held him by the heel, it was not immersed during the bathing and thus the heel remained mortal and vulnerable to injury (hence the expression "Achilles heel" for an isolated weakness). He grew up to be the greatest of all mortal warriors. After Calchas' prophecy, Thetis hid Achilles in Skyros at the court of King Lycomedes, where he was disguised as a girl. At a crucial point in the war, she assists her son by providing weapons divinely forged by Hephaestus (see below).
caption: Thetis gives her son Achilles weapons forged by Hephaestus (detail of Attic black-figure hydria, 575–550 BC)
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