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PARIS Good day to you also, young man. But who are you, to have come here to see me, and who are these women whom you have with you? They are not of a sort to roam the mountains, being so beautiful. HERMES They are not women; it is Hera and Athena and Aphrodite whom you see, Paris, and I am Hermes, sent by Zeus—but why do you tremble and turn pale? Don't be afraid; it is nothing terrible. He bids you be judge of thelr beauty, saying that as you are handsome yourself and also well schooled in all that concerns love, he turns over the decision to you. You will find out the prize for the contest if you read the writing on the apple.
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PARIS Come, let me see what it says; “The fairest may have me.”—How could I, Lord Hermes, a mere mortal and a countryman, be judge of an extraordinary spectacle, too sublime for a herdsman? To decide such matters better befits dainty, city-bred folk. As for me, I could perhaps pass judgement as an expert between two she-goats, as to which is the more beautiful, or between two heifers;
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but these goddesses are all equally beautiful and I do not know ~ how a man could withdraw his eyes from one and transfer them to another. They are not inclined to come away readily, but wherever one directs them first, they take firm hold and commend what is before them; and if they pass over to something else, they see that this too is beautiful and linger upon it, mastered by what is near. In short, their beauty encompasses and completely enthralls me, and I am distressed that I cannot see with my whole body as Argus did. I think I should pass a becoming judgement if I should give the apple to them all.— Another thing: one of them is Zeus’ sister and wife, and the other two are his daughters! How, then, could the decision help being hazardous from that point of view also?
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HERMES I do not know; but it is impossible to escape carrying out what Zeus has commanded.
