Then
came the naked Goddesses, to seek at the hand of the most beautiful of
mortals the prize of beauty. Aphrodite won the golden apple from the
queen of heaven, Hera, and from the Goddess of war and wisdom, Athena,
bribing the judge by the promise of the fairest wife in the world. No
incident is more frequently celebrated in poetry and art, to which it
lends such gracious opportunities. Paris was later recognised as of the
royal blood of Troy. He came to Lacedaemon on an embassy, he saw Helen,
and destiny had its way.
Concerning the details in this most ancient love-story, we learn nothing
from Homer, who merely makes Paris remind Helen of their bridal night in
the isle of Cranae. But from Homer we learn that Paris carried off not
only the wife of Menelaus, but many of his treasures. To the poet of the
"Iliad," the psychology of the wooing would have seemed a simple matter.
Like the later vase-painters, he would have shown us Paris beside Helen,
Aphrodite standing near, accompanied by the figure of Peitho--Persuasion.
Homer always escapes our psychological problems by throwing the weight of
our deeds and misdeeds on a God or a Goddess, or on destiny. To have
fled from her lord and her one child, Hermione, was not in keeping with
the character of Helen as Homer draws it. Her repentance is almost
Christian in its expression, and repentance indicates a consciousness of
sin and of shame, which Helen frequently professes.
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