d him to the favour of
Oenone, a nymph of Ida, whom he married, and with whom he lived in the
most perfect tenderness. Their conjugal bliss was soon disturbed. At
the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, Eris, the goddess of discord, who had
not been invited to partake of the entertainment, showed her displeasure
by throwing into the assembly of gods, who were at the celebration of the
nuptials, a golden apple on which were written the words _Detur
pulchriori_. All the goddesses claimed it as their own: the contention
at first became general, but at last only three, Juno (Here), Venus
(Aphrodite), and Minerva (Pallas), wished to dispute their respective
right to beauty. The gods, unwilling to become arbiters in an affair of
so tender and delicate a nature, appointed Paris to adjudge the prize of
beauty to the fairest of the goddesses, and indeed the shepherd seemed
properly qualified to decide so great a contest, as his wisdom was so
well established, and his prudence and sagacity so well known. The
goddesses appeared before their judge without any covering or ornament,
and each tried by promises and entreaties to gain the attention of Paris,
and to influence his judgment. Juno promised him a kingdom; Minerva,
military glory; and Venus, the fairest woman in the world for his wife."
(Lempriere.) Paris accorded the apple to Aphrodite, abandoned Oenone,
and after he had been acknowledged the son of Priam went to Sparta, where
he persuaded Helen, the wife of Menelaus, to flee with him to Troy. The
ten years' siege, and the destruction of Troy, resulted from this rash
act. Oenone's significant words at the close of the poem foreshadow this
disaster. Tennyson, in his old age concluded the narrative in the poem
called _The Death of Oenone_. According to the legend Paris, mortally
wounded by one of the arrows of Philoctetes, sought out the abandoned
Oenone that she might heal him of his wound. But he died before he
reached her, "and the nymph, still mindful of their former loves, threw
herself upon his body, and stabbed herself to the heart, after she had
plentifully bathed it with her tears." Tennyson follows another
tradition in which Paris reaches Oenone, who scornfully repels him. He
passed onward through the mist, and dropped dead upon the mountain side.
His old shepherd playmates built his funeral pyre. Oenone follows the
yearning in her heart to where her husband lies, and dies in the flames
that consume him.

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