Paris, too, was a Trojan of royal birth, but like Е’dipus, he had been left on the mountain in his infancy, because the oracle had foretold that he would be the death of his kindred and the ruin of his country. He was as comely as Ganymede himself,-that Trojan youth whom Zeus, in the shape of an eagle, seized and bore away to Olympus, to be a cup-bearer to the gods.

Now there lived on Mount Ida, near the city of Troy, a certain young shepherd by the name of Paris. Not one of the Gods dared to decide so dangerous a question,-not Zeus himself,-and the three rivals were forced to choose a judge among mortals. Venus, the very goddess of beauty, said that it was hers by right but Juno could not endure to own herself less fair than another, and even Athene coveted the palm of beauty as well as of wisdom, and would not give it up! Discord had indeed come to the wedding-feast. They were all eager to claim the prize, but only three persisted. Some one picked up the strange missile and read its inscription, вЂњFor the Fairest вЂќ and at once discussion arose among the goddesses. While the wedding-guests sat at feast, she broke in upon their mirth, flung among them a golden apple, and departed with looks that boded ill. Thither all the immortals were bidden, save one, Eris, the goddess of Discord, ever an unwelcome guest. The sea-nymph Thetis (whom Zeus himself had once desired for his wife) was given in marriage to a mortal, Peleus, and there was a great wedding-feast in heaven. The rivalries of men and gods brought about many calamities, but none so heavy as this and it would never have come to pass, they say, if it had not been for jealousy among the immortals,-all because of a golden apple! But Destiny has nurtured ominous plants from little seeds and this is how one evil grew great enough to overshadow heaven and earth.

The sun vanished discord