Peleus, the king of the Myrmidons, marries a sea nymph named Thetis. Many gods and goddesses from Olympus attend to celebrate with the happy couple, but Peleus and Thetis fail to invite Eris, the goddess of discord.

Eris arrives in the middle of the feast to take revenge on everyone in attendance. She tosses down a golden apple on the table, with the words “to the fairest” etched into it. Three goddesses immediately begin to vie for the apple: Hera, wife of Zeus and queen of the gods; Athene, most wise of all the immortals; and Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty. The three goddesses initially try to get the guests at the wedding to choose the most beautiful of them, but the guests refuse—“they knew well enough that, whichever goddess they chose to receive the golden apple, they would make enemies of the other two” (2).

Decades pass. On the mortal plane, Priam and Hecuba, the king and queen of Troy, have a newborn son named Paris. Due to a prophecy that Paris is the “firebrand that should burn down Troy” (4), they abandon him in the wilderness to die.