Paris
（
Πάρις), also called
Alexander
(
Ἀλέξανδρος). The second son of Priam, king of Troy, by
his wife Hecuba. When his mother, being about to give birth to a son, had dreamed that she
brought forth a torch which set all Ilium in flames, the soothsayer Aesacus declared that the
child would prove the ruin of his country, and recommended its exposure (Eurip.
Andr. 298;
Div. i. 21). As soon as born, the child was given to a servant to be
left on Ida to perish. He obeyed, but, on returning at the end of five days, he found that a
bear had been nursing the infant. Struck with this strange event, he took home the infant,
reared him as his own son, and named him Paris. When Paris grew up he distinguished himself by
his strength and courage in repelling robbers from the flocks, and the shepherds, in
consequence, named him Alexander (“Man-protector”), or, according to the
Greek form,
Ἀλέξανδρος (
ἀπὸ τοῦ
ἀλέξειν τοὺς ἄνδρας). In this state of seclusion, too, he united himself to
the nymph Oenoné, whose fate is elsewhere related. (See
Oenoné.) Their happiness was soon disturbed. At the marriage
of Peleus and Thetis, the goddess of Discord, who had not been invited to partake of the
entertainment, showed her displeasure by throwing into the assembly of the gods who were at
the wedding celebration a golden apple, on which were written the words
Ἡ καλὴ λαβέτω, “Let the beauty (among you) take me.”
Heré, Athené, and Aphrodité laying claim to it, and Zeus
being unwilling to decide, the god commanded Hermes to lead the three deities to Mount Ida,
and to intrust the decision of the affair to the shepherd Alexander, whose judgment was to be
final. The goddesses appeared before him, and each, to influence his decision, made him an
alluring offer of future advantage, Heré by the promise of a kingdom,
Athené by the gift of intellectual superiority and martial renown, and
Aphrodité by offering him the fairest woman in the world for his wife. To
Aphrodité he assigned the prize, and brought upon
 |
|
Paris. (Aeginetan Marbles.)
|
himself, in consequence, the unrelenting enmity of her two disappointed rivals,
which was extended also to his whole family and the entire Trojan race.
Soon after this event, Priam proposed a contest among his sons and other princes, and
promised to reward the conqueror with one of the finest bulls on Mount Ida. Persons were sent
to procure the animal, and it was found in the possession of Paris, who reluctantly yielded it
up. The shepherd, desirous of obtaining again this favourite animal, went to Troy, and entered
the lists of the combatants. Having proved successful against every competitor, and having
gained an advantage over Hector himself, that prince, irritated at seeing himself conquered by
an unknown stranger, pursued him closely, and Paris must have fallen a victim to his brother's
resentment had he not fled to the altar of Zeus. This place of refuge preserved his life; and
Cassandra, the daughter of Priam, struck with the similarity of the features of Paris to those
of her brothers, inquired his birth and his age. From these circumstances she soon discovered
that he was her brother, and as such she introduced him to her father and to his children.
Priam, thereupon, forgetful of the alarming predictions of Aesacus, acknowledged Paris as his
son, and all enmity instantly ceased between the newcomer and Hector. Not long after this, at
the instigation of Aphrodité, who had not forgotten her promise to him, Paris
proceeded on a voyage to Greece, from which the soothsaying Helenus and Cassandra had in vain
endeavoured to deter him. The ostensible object of the voyage was to procure information
respecting his father's sister Hesioné, who had been given in marriage by Hercules
to his follower Telamon, the monarch of Salamis. The real motive, however, which prompted the
enterprise, was a wish to obtain, in the person of Helen, then the fairest woman of her time,
a fulfilment of what Aphrodité had offered him when he was deciding the contest of
beauty. Arriving at Sparta, where Menelaüs, the husband of Helen, was reigning, he
met with a hospitable reception; but, Menelaüs soon after having sailed away to
Crete, the Trojan prince availed himself of his absence, seduced Helen, and bore her away to
his native city, together with a large portion of the wealth of her husband. Hence ensued the
war of Troy, which ended in the total destruction of that illfated city. See
Trojan War.
Paris, though represented in general as effeminate and vain of his personal appearance, yet
distinguished himself during the siege of Troy by wounding Diomedes, Machaon,
Antilochus, and Palamedes, and subsequently by discharging the dart which proved fatal to
Achilles. Aphrodité took him under her special protection, and, in the single
combat with Menelaüs, rescued him from the vengeance of the latter. On the capture of
Troy, Paris was wounded by Philoctetes with one of the arrows of Heracles, and, falling ill,
returned to Oenoné, whom he had so long before abandoned. Resenting her wrongs she
refused to heal him, and he returned to Troy, where he died.
