Paris of Troy (1230-1183 BC), born Alexander, was the Prince of Troy, the son of Priam and Hecuba, the brother of Hector, and the husband of Helen. His elopement with Helen led to the Trojan War, during which he killed Achilles with an arrow.
Biography[]
Alexander was the son of King Priam of Troy and his Phrygian wife Hecuba, the younger brother of 18 siblings, including Hector, Deiphobus, Troilus, and Cassandra. The seer Aesacus foretold Troy's downfall after Hecuba dreamed that she had given birth to a flaming torch, and Priam reluctantly sent his son to be exposed at birth to save Troy from doom. However, the infant was rescued by the shepherd Agelaus and was raised with the name "Paris", and Paris fell in love with the nymph Oenone during his youth. One day, Paris won a tournament in Troy, and his father Priam recognized him as his son from a birthmark he bore. Priam, feeling a change of heart towards his grown son, adopted him as his own, making him a prince of Troy.
After Paris granted a golden crown to the god Ares after the god assumed the form of a bull to win a Trojan bullfighting competition, the gods were said to have taken notice of Paris' sound judgment. When Eris, the goddess of discord, proposed a beauty contest among the goddesses at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis in 1203 BC, Zeus deferred the task of judging the winner to Paris. All three goddesses were deemed to be equally beautiful when they disrobed themselves, so Hera promised Paris rulership over all Europe and Asia, Athena offered to make him the most skilled warrior in the world, and Aphrodite offered him the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta. Paris granted the Apple of Discord to Aphrodite, and he proceeded to abscond from Sparta with Helen while on a diplomatic mission, winning her love with Aphrodite's help.
However, Paris' abduction of Helen from Menelaus activated the "Oath of Tyndareus", under which all of Helen's former suitors among the Greek kings were bound to defend the chosen husband of Helen should she be seized. Paris' brother Hector attempted to force the young and foolish Paris to return Helen to the Greeks, but Paris refused, insisting that he would go with her if she was to be sent back. In 1193 BC, the Greeks invaded the Troad, Paris proved unskilled and cowardly. Helen's husband Menelaus bested Paris in a duel meant to settle the war, only for Paris to kick sand in Menelaus' face and run for his life rather than die; the Trojans' violation of the terms of the dual meant that the war would go on. Paris later wounded Diomedes with an arrow to the foot, and Apollo helped guide Paris' arrows into the heel of the brave Greek warrior Achilles as punishment for Achilles' violation of Apollo's temple, and as vengeance for Achilles' slaying of Hector.
In 1183 BC, Paris was himself mortally wounded with arrows, fired by the Greek warrior Philoctetes. Paris attempted to return to his former lover Oenone at Mount Ida in Phrygia, only for Oenone to refuse aid to him as punishment for him forgetting about her and leaving her for Helen. Paris died on the mountainside, and Oenone later threw himself on his funeral pyre out of remorse.
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