“Then the strife spread among the guests in the hall, each taking sides with the one he loved best; and, where peace and merriment had reigned, now hot words and bitter wrangling were heard.  And had not Zeus bidden them keep silence, thus putting an end to the quarrel, all Pelion would have been rent, and the earth shaken to its centre in the mellay that would have followed.

“‘Let us waste no words over this matter,’ he said.  ’It is not for the immortals to say who of their number is most beautiful.  But on the slopes of Mount Ida, far across the sea, the fairest of the sons of men—­Paris, a prince of Troy—­keeps his flocks; let him judge who is fairest, and let the apple be hers to whom he gives it.’

“Then Hermes, the swift-footed messenger, arose, and led the three goddesses over sea and land to distant Mount Ida, where Paris, with no thought of the wonderful life which lay before him, piped on his shepherd’s reeds, and tended his flock of sheep.”

[1]Cheiron the Centaur lived in a cavern on Mount Pelion and was reputed to be the wisest of mortals.  All the young heroes of the time, Jason, Achilles, and others, were his pupils and spent their boyhood with him.  He is sometimes represented as having the head of a man and the body of a horse; but it is probable that he was only one of a race of men noted for their skill in horsemanship.  This story is supposed to have been related by him to young Odysseus (Ulysses), who visited him in his cavern.

PARIS AND CENONE

RELATED BY CHEIRON THE CENTAUR

“On the other side of the sea there stands a city, rich and mighty, the like of which there is none in Greece.  The name of this city is Troy, although its inhabitants call it Ilios.  There an old man, named Priam, rules over a happy and peace-loving people.  He dwells in a great palace of polished marble, on a hill overlooking the plain; and his granaries are stored with corn, and his flocks and herds are pastured on the hills and mountain slopes behind the city.

“Many sons has King Priam; and they are brave and noble youths, well worthy of such a father.  The eldest of these sons is Hector, who, the Trojans hope, will live to bring great honor to his native land.

“Just before the second son was born, a strange thing troubled the family of old Priam.  The queen dreamed that her babe had turned into a firebrand, which burned up the walls and the high towers of Troy, and left but smouldering ashes where once the proud city stood.  She told the king her dream; and when the child was born, they called a soothsayer, who could foresee the mysteries of the future, and they asked him what the vision meant.

“‘It means,’ said he, ’that this babe, if he lives, shall be a firebrand in Troy, and shall turn its walls and its high towers into heaps of smouldering ashes.’

“’But what shall be done with the child, that he may not do this terrible thing?’ asked Priam, greatly sorrowing, for the babe was very beautiful.