Paris- Greek HeroHero"Prince of Troy"

Birth and the Dream of Hecuba

Paris was born to King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. Before his birth, Hecuba dreamed she gave birth not to a child but to a flaming torch that set the city ablaze. Flames consumed the citadel and spread through the streets. She woke screaming. Priam summoned the seers. In Apollodorus, the interpreter was Aesacus, Paris's own half-brother: the child would destroy Troy.

Priam ordered the herdsman Agelaus to take the infant to Mount Ida and leave him to die. Agelaus could not do it. He left the baby exposed, but when he returned days later the child was alive, nursed by a she-bear. He took it as a sign, brought the boy home, and raised him as his own. The prince of Troy grew up as a shepherd on the slopes of Ida.

On Ida, Paris was loved by the nymph Oenone, daughter of the river god Cebren. She had the gift of healing and warned him that if he left her for another woman, disaster would follow. She swore that if he was ever wounded, only she could cure him. Paris was also known among the herdsmen for settling disputes fairly. This reputation reached the gods.

The Judgment of Paris

At the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, attended by all the Olympians, only Eris, goddess of strife, was not invited. She threw a golden apple among the guests inscribed with two words: "For the Fairest."

Three goddesses claimed the apple: Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. Zeus refused to judge between them and sent the three to Paris on Mount Ida. Hermes led them to the shepherd. Each goddess offered a bribe. Hera offered sovereignty over Asia and Europe, Athena victory in every battle. Aphrodite offered the most beautiful woman in the world.

Paris chose Aphrodite. The most beautiful woman in the world was Helen of Sparta, wife of King Menelaus.

The Return to Troy

Shortly after the judgment, Paris learned his true identity. In Apollodorus, he competed in funeral games held at Troy for the supposedly dead prince and won every contest. Cassandra recognized him and warned that he would destroy the city. No one believed her. Priam welcomed him as a long-lost son.

The Theft of Helen

Paris sailed to Sparta on a diplomatic mission. Menelaus received him as an honored guest. Paris ate at his table and slept under his roof for nine days. When Menelaus left for Crete to attend his grandfather's funeral, Paris took Helen and a cargo of Spartan treasure and sailed from Laconia.

In Homer, Aphrodite's power compelled Helen's love. Herodotus tells a different story: contrary winds drove Paris to Egypt, where King Proteus seized Helen and the treasure, and Paris arrived at Troy with nothing. In Euripides's Helen, only a phantom went to Troy while the real Helen waited safely in Egypt. In Homer's telling, Paris brought Helen to Troy.

Menelaus and his brother Agamemnon called every king bound by the Oath of Tyndareus. A thousand ships sailed for Troy.

The Warrior Who Was Not

Paris was no Hector. While his brother led the Trojan defence in the front lines, Paris preferred Helen's chambers. He wore fine robes rather than armour and fought with the bow, a weapon the Greeks considered less honourable than the spear.

His weakness was exposed when Menelaus challenged him to single combat to settle the war. Paris agreed, but in the field Menelaus outmatched him. He seized Paris by the helmet crest and dragged him through the dust. Aphrodite snatched Paris away in a mist and set him down in Helen's bedroom.

Hector rebuked him: "evil Paris, beautiful, woman-crazy, cajoling." Helen wished aloud she had married a man capable of shame. Paris wounded Diomedes and Machaon with his bow and rallied briefly when Hector shamed him, then retreated again.

The Death of Achilles

Paris killed Achilles at the Scaean Gate. He could not have done it alone. Achilles was nearly invulnerable, his body dipped in the Styx by his mother Thetis, protected everywhere except the heel by which she had held him. Apollo, who hated the Greeks, guided Paris's arrow to that one spot. Achilles fell. Paris had killed the man who killed Hector, but every Greek knew who had truly aimed the arrow.

The Death of Paris

Paris did not long survive Achilles. He was struck by one of the poisoned arrows of Philoctetes, heir to the bow of Heracles, which the Greeks had brought from Lemnos on the advice of the captured seer Helenus. The wound was mortal, but it could be healed.

Paris was carried to Mount Ida, to Oenone's dwelling. He begged her to save him and reminded her of her promise. Oenone remembered the abandonment and the years of silence. She refused.

He died on the mountain where he had been raised. In Quintus Smyrnaeus, Oenone relented too late. She ran after Paris with her healing herbs and found him already dead on the funeral pyre. She threw herself onto the flames.