ited to the wedding, conceived the design of avenging herself
for the neglect, by provoking a quarrel among those who were there.
She, accordingly, caused a beautiful golden apple to be made, with an
inscription marked upon it, "FOR THE MOST BEAUTIFUL." This apple she
threw in among the guests assembled at the wedding. The goddesses all
claimed the prize, and a very earnest dispute arose among them in
respect to it. Jupiter sent the several claimants, under the charge
of a special messenger, to Mount Ida, to a handsome and accomplished
young shepherd there, named Paris--who was, in fact, a prince in
disguise--that they might exhibit themselves to him, and submit the
question of the right to the apple to his award. The contending
goddesses appeared accordingly before Paris, and each attempted to
bribe him to decide in her favor, by offering him some peculiar and
tempting reward. Paris gave the apple to Aphrodite, and she was so
pleased with the result, that she took Paris under her special
protection, and made the solitudes of Mount Ida one of her favorite
retreats.

Here she saw and became acquainted with Anchises, who was, as has
already been said, a noble, or prince, by descent, though he had for
some time been dwelling away from the city, and among the mountains,
rearing flocks and herds. Here Aphrodite saw him, and when Jupiter
inspired her with a sudden susceptibility to the power of love, the
shepherd Anchises was the object toward which her affections turned.
She accordingly went to Mount Ida, and giving herself up to him, she
lived with him for some time among the mountains as his bride. AEneas
was their son.

Aphrodite did not, however, appear to Anchises in her true character,
but assumed, instead, the form and the disguise of a Phrygian
princess. Phrygia was a kingdom of Asia Minor, not very far from Troy.
She continued this disguise as long as she remained with Anchises at
Mount Ida; at length, however, she concluded to leave him, and to
return to Olympus, and at her parting she made herself known. She,
however, charged Anchises never to reveal to any person who she was,
declaring that AEneas, whom she was going to leave with his father when
she went away, would be destroyed by a stroke of lightning from
heaven, if the real truth in respect to his mother were ever revealed.

When Aphrodite had gone, Anchises, having now no longer any one at
home to attend to the rearing of the child, send him to Dardanus,