When King Peleus married the sea nymph Thetis, all of the gods, except one, came to the wedding. This was Eris, the goddess of discord, who was not invited for fear she would disrupt the happy event. But the angry goddess came anyway, and she threw into the midst of the wedding party a golden apple. On it was written “For the Fairest.”

At once the three most powerful goddesses laid claim to it. Juno, queen of the gods; Minerva, goddess of wisdom; and Venus, the goddess of beauty and love, all asked Jupiter, the king of the gods, to judge the fairest among them. But Jupiter knew he could not make this choice, particularly since he was the husband of Juno and the father of Minerva and Venus. Instead, he sent them to Mount Ida to ask a young shepherd named Paris to choose the fairest. 

Now Paris was not really a shepherd, but actually the son of King Priam of Troy. At his birth it was foretold that he would bring destruction upon Troy, so as a baby he was left to die upon a mountainside. He would have perished, but he was found and raised by a kindly shepherd. 

The goddesses came down from the heavens and found Paris, and each offered him a great reward if he judged her to be the fairest. Juno offered him power, and Minerva wisdom. But Venus offered him the love of the most beautiful woman in the world. Paris awarded the apple to Venus. Then the goddess told him the secret of his birth and sent him to Troy to seek his father. 

King Priam was delighted to see his son but remembered the prophecy and devised a plan to send Paris away from Troy. The king gave Paris a fleet of ships to go in search of his sister who had been stolen away to Greece many years before. 

Paris set sail for Greece and arrived, by chance, at the court of the king of Sparta, Menelaus. The king presented the young Paris to Helen, his queen, boasting that all of Greece hailed her as the most beautiful woman in the world. Paris at once fell in love with the queen. Venus kept her promise, and the fair Helen returned his love. Secretly, they stole away to the Trojan ships, and the triumphant Paris returned with her to Troy.

Great was the anger of Menelaus when he discovered that they had gone. He called upon all the kings of Greece to avenge the insult and help him recover his queen. A great fleet of Greek warships was made ready, and the Trojan War began.