The Judgement of Paris is a story from Greek mythology, which was one of the events that led up to the Trojan War, and in later versions to the foundation of Rome.
Judgement of Paris, fresco from Pompeii
Paris receives Hermes who leads Athena, Hera and Aphrodite, four women facing to the right. Painting on terracotta panels, 560–550 BC
Attic black-figure neck amphora by Swing Painter (c. 540–530 BC), now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Golden Apple of Discord by Jacob Jordaens
The Trojan War was a legendary conflict in Greek mythology that took place around the 12th or 13th century BCE. The war was waged by the Achaeans (Greeks) against the city of Troy after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology, and it has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably Homer's Iliad. The core of the Iliad describes a period of four days and two nights in the tenth year of the decade-long siege of Troy; the Odyssey describes the journey home of Odysseus, one of the war's heroes. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of epic poems, which have survived through fragments. Episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets including Virgil and Ovid.
The Golden Apple of Discord by Jacob Jordaens
The Burning of Troy (1759–1762), oil painting by Johann Georg Trautmann
Polyxena Sarcophagus in Troy Museum
The Judgement of Paris (1599) by Hendrick van Balen the Elder. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin