I highly recommend Malcolm Davies article at the Center
for Hellenic Studies website. He analyzes the extant fragments of the Cypria and Proclus’ summary of the epic using standard
European folk-tale motifs. For those
unfamiliar with the Cypria, Davies explains that it explains that Zeus and
Themis conspired to ignite the wars at Thebes and Troy with their, “inevitable
tally of deaths, as part of a cosmic plan to lighten the burden of the earth,
which was being trodden under foot by more and more human beings”
Davies discusses several folk-tale motifs in the myths of the Cypria; one in particular he calls the offended deity syndrome, it can be a crime of
commission or omission. This brings us
to the next phase in Zeus’ plan the wedding of the hero Peleus and his
reluctant bride, the Nereid Thetis. The
goddess of strife, Eris is not invited. As
Davies points out Eris much like the forgotten fairy at the baptism party in Sleeping Beauty. It is Eris who tosses the golden apple into
the midst of the gods engraved with the fateful words “For the fairest”. Davies points out that
“since Greek sacrifice to gods was originally
conceived as a feast to which the gods were invited, there is no significant
distinction between the two aspects of failure to sacrifice and failure to
invite to a festival.” He adds that “A
striking feature of… the offended deity’s anger is regularly vented not
directly upon the perpetrator of the crime, but on a member of his or her
family, more often than not an offspring, and within that category most often a
daughter.”
He then proceeds to suggest that Eris’ intent
was not just to spoil the reception, but that she was actually arranging “
punishment of the offspring of the offender who failed to invite (her) in the
first place, that is, of Achilles. “
The next major event in Themis and
Zeus’ plan to “lighten the burden of the earth” is the “Judgement of Paris.” Athena, Aphrodite and Hera each vie for the
apple and ask Zeus to decide. Zeus being
no fool defers to a Trojan prince named Paris (Alexander) and sends his wife
and daughters off to him with Hermes.
“…the dilemma which the “hero” faces
when, by gratifying one of the trio, he inevitably ensures the life-long enmity
of the remaining two. This is, indeed, precisely Paris’ dilemma. The notion
that the powerful protection of the favoured party can somehow overcome or
outweigh the ill consequences of the fateful choice.... Paris, choosing
Aphrodite, is gifted in love but is forever without talent in the civic and
military spheres of his life”. A great contrast, one might add, to his brother
Hector.”
(Davies explains it was the) “…wrong
choice represented by Paris’ preferring of Aphrodite,” Unarguably,
Aphrodite was the wrong choice because she could not stop the death of Paris,
all his male relatives, enslavement of the women of Troy and the destruction of
the city. Davies and Robert Graves (The
Greek Myths, page 19) argue that the winner of such a contest should be the
youngest, the “ultimogeniture”. But Hera
was from the generation before Athena and (Dione’s daughter) Aphrodite so by
Davies definition the wrong choice.
Athena was Zeus’ first child. (Hesiod, Theogony 885) This makes Aphrodite as the youngest and still
according to Davies the “wrong choice”.
If Paris had free will, which goddess
would have been the right choice, I wonder?
Malcolm Davies, "Folk-tale Elements in
the Cypria," Classics@ Volume 6: Efimia D.
Karakantza, ed. The Center for Hellenic Studies of Harvard University, edition
of December 21, 2010.
