TFBT: Graves and the Judgement of Paris

Over at the Kosmos Society  we were discussing some of Robert Graves' theories (The Greek Myths) I made some passing reference to what was really happening at the “Judgement of Paris” according to Graves.  It occurred to me that I should probably explan that comment.

Graves, following Apollodorus 1.6.3 in a myth that seems to be otherwise unknown. Says at  “ Zeus returned to Olympus and, mounted upon a chariot drawn by winged horses, once more pursued Typhon with thunderbolts. Typhon had gone to Mount Nysa, where the Three Fates offered him ephemeral fruits, pretending that these would restore his vigour though, in reality, they doomed him to certain death…(footnote 3) the Cadmeians of Boeotia (Thebans) seem to have been concerned with preserving the Zeus cult. Typhon’s ‘ephemeral fruits’, given him by the Three Fates, appear to be the usual death-apples. In a proto-Hittite version of the myth the serpent Illyunka overcomes the Storm-god and takes away his eyes and heart, which he recovers by stratagem. The Divine Council then call on the goddess Inara to exert vengeance. Illyunka, invited by her to a feast, eats until gorged; when upon she binds him with a cord and he is despatched by the Storm-god.”    (Graves, The Greek Myths, Typhon, e.)

“All the gods brought gifts to the wedding; notably Mother Earth gave Hera a tree with golden apples, which was later guarded by the Hesperides in Hera's orchard on Mount Atlas…(footnote) 5. A hero, as the word indicates, was a sacred king who had been sacrificed to Hera, whose body was safely under the earth, and whose soul had gone to enjoy her paradise at the back of the North Wind. His golden apples, in Greek and Celtic myth, were passports to this paradise.” (Graves, The Greek Myths; Hera and Her Children, b.)

The problem with Graves’ line of logic on golden apples is that many of his arguments are preceded by the phrase; “the misreading of an icon” (Ganymede 1).  So for example “Similarly, the waiting bride has been misread as Eos by a mythographer… This icon would equally illustrate Peleus’s marriage to Thetis.”  (Ganymede 1), “the myth of Arne’s being blinded… is apparently deduced from the familiar icon that yielded the myths of Danaë, Antiope, and the rest. (Sons of Hellen’s. 2) “The anomaly is perhaps due to a misreading of an icon-sequence” (Alope 1).  And these are just a few examples of a phrase.  Even as a child studying Graves in the reference section of my school library I found the phrase suspciously over-used.

So, Graves interpretation of what is really happening in the Judgement of Paris is that a triad of death-goddesses is giving Paris the gold-apple of immortality, his ticket to the Isle of the Blest.  The price of his unwilting fame, is the destruction of his home-land.