The Judgment of Paris
The Judgment of Paris
In a Nutshell
There's absolutely no reason for you to care about this myth. After all, it's totally obsessed with physical beauty, which contemporary society just doesn't care about at all. Yes, modern-day human beings have advanced light years beyond the need to value such superficial things as good looks. In fact...
Ha! O.K., we totally can't keep a straight face anymore. You know it. We know it. Everybody knows it. These days, folks are just as obsessed beauty as they've ever been. We've got beauty contests just like the one Paris judges for Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite. We've got mega-famous supermodels who, just like Helen, are famous almost exclusively for their stunning good looks.
We obsessively surround ourselves with pictures of people who (for whatever reason) we've decided are beautiful. Every magazine cover model is airbrushed to perfection, each news anchor has every hair in place, almost every actor allowed on TV and the big screen is just a wee bit more good looking than most of the people you see in everyday life. Even the "ugly" actors are smokin'. No doubt about it, there's no beating the power of beauty.
Shmoop Connections
Explore the ways this myth connects with the world and with other topics on Shmoop
Homer's Iliad is THE book on the Trojan War, the bloody conflict that erupted after Paris claimed Aphrodite's bribe: Helen. Check out this link to read about how Aphrodite rewards Paris again by whisking him away from the battlefield just before he's killed by Menelaus.After the repercussions of Paris's judgment have decimated his hometown of Troy and caused his death, his relative Aeneas makes his way across the Mediterranean to found a new Troy in distant Italy. Read all about it in the Aeneid by Virgil.
Helen makes a cameo in Homer's Odyssey, when Odysseus's son Telemachos visits her and Menelaus after the Trojan War is all wrapped up. Is she still dreaming of her lost love Paris? The world may never know.
In his poem "No Second Troy" William Butler Yeats compares a troublesome lover with Paris's irresistible Helen.