Paris (mythology)

Paris (Greek: Πάρις; also known as Alexander or Alexandros) was a child of Priam and Hecuba. He was the royal heir of the city of Troy, and appears in Greek mythology (Homer's Illiad). He was probably the best-known for his elopement with Helen of Troy, Queen of Sparta, this being one of the immediate causes of the Trojan War. Later in the war, he fatally wounds Achilles' in the heel with an arrow, as foretold by Achilles' mother, Thetis.

The Trojan War
Paris is the one who caused the Trojan War to occur with the Trojans fighting against the Greeks. Before the Trojan War began, he and his brother, Hector, visited Menelaus, the king of Sparta, on a diplomatic mission. There, as they were leaving, Paris eloped to Troy with Menelaus's wife, the beautiful Helen, queen of Sparta. Thereafter, Menelaus went to Agamemnon, his brother and a king of Greece, and asked him to give him men to go to Troy to fight the Trojans to give him back Helen. Agamemnon agreed to help his brother and sent him men to get his wife back from Troy. Instead, Agamemnon felt that he wanted to take the city of Troy under his command and therefore sent thousands of men over to fight for the control of the city.

In Homer's Illiad, it is said that the Trojan War took ten years of fighting between the Greek armies and the Trojan army. Nine of the ten were spent fighting between the armies but the Greeks didn't have an advantage since Achilles, a son of Thetis, spent his agreement on Agamemnon in his tent. The Tenth, however, had Achilles returning to help the Greek army fight when he heard that Paris' brother, Hector, had killed his best friend, Patroclus, while Patroclus was wearing Achilles' armor.

Achilles then killed Hector in a duel around the walls surrounding Troy. After he killed Hector, Achilles preceded to tie Hector's mangled (and also lewd) body with ropes to his chariot and pulled Hector's body around the city walls for a long while. Then, under a short truce, Paris' father and king of Troy goes to Achilles to ask him to give him the body of Hector, his son. Achilles relents, and gives the dead Hector's body to him, but at the same time he cries.

The Judgement of Paris
The Judgement of Paris was the cause for the result of the Trojan War to start between the Greeks and the Trojans. Paris was picked by Zeus, the king of the gods, to decide on who was the fairest goddess on Olympus - Aphrodite, Hera, or Athena.

There are many reasons on how Paris judged who was the true fairest goddess. One was that all three goddesses went naked to show him their beauty so he could decide which of them were fairest. The second was that at the same time all three goddesses stood before him they told him that if he decided on one of them they would give him:


 * Athena - the wisdom and strategies of war on other nations.
 * Aphrodite - the most beautiful woman on earth (which turned out to be Helen)
 * Hera - the wealth of other nations.

Paris, however, thought that each of Athena and Hera's gifts to him if they were chosen to be the fairest were not so good because he knew that his father and the city of Troy were at peace and that there was no use of a war. So instead of picking Athena and Hera as the fairest of all, Paris picked Aphrodite because he thought her gift was the best. This made Hera and Athena deeply angered that Paris had not picked them and they angrily disappeared to Olympus, causing the rest of the gods to help each side of the war in the fight against and for Troy.

The Titan's Curse
Percy briefly mentions Paris and his relationship with Helen when talking to Aphrodite about tragic love stories in a white limousine at the Junkyard of the Gods, to which the love goddess replies to by shaking her head sadly, but having a smile as she is nodding.