Three goddesses,
According to legend, Paris, while he was still a shepherd, was chosen by Zeus to determine which of three goddesses was the most beautiful. Rejecting bribes of kingly power from Hera and military might from Athena, he chose Aphrodite and accepted her bribe to help him win the most beautiful woman alive.
Paris chose Aphrodite, seduced by the prospect of Helen and her famed beauty. His elopement with the wife of Menelaos was the cause of the Trojan War.
Paris gave the golden apple to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, beauty and fertility, who, in return, promised to give him the beautiful Helen of Troy, thereby triggering the Trojan War.
Zeus was asked to mediate and he commanded Hermes to lead the three goddesses to Paris of Troy to decide the issue. The three goddesses appearing before the shepherd prince, each offering him gifts for favour. He chose Aphrodite, swayed by her promise to bestow upon him Helene, the most beautiful woman, for wife.
Aphrodite, on the other hand, seduced him with love, offering him the most beautiful female mortal in the world, Helen of Sparta, the wife of the King of Sparta Menelaus. Paris opted for Aphrodite and so Helen was taken from Sparta to become Helen of Troy. ...
Hera promised him land and riches, Athena victory in battle and Aphrodite the love of the most beautiful women in the world. In the end Paris chose Aphrodite, who told him of the beauty of Queen Helen of Sparta, with whom Paris later eloped, leading to the Trojan War and his own death.
First, Hera promised him to make him King of Europe and Asia. Then, Athena offered him wisdom and skill in war. Finally, Aphrodite promised him the most beautiful woman on Earth (hard choice, we know). Paris, after serious contemplation, gave the golden apple to Aphrodite, accepting her gift.
At the wedding of Peleus and Thetis the guests included mortals and gods from Olympus. However, Eris was not invited because “she was the goddess of discord and wherever she went she took trouble with her” (lines 13-14). Eris was angry at not being invited and so came to the wedding party to take revenge.
Aphrodite was the most beautiful of all the Goddesses and there are many tales of how she could encourage both Gods and humans to fall in love with her.
Of Aphrodite's mortal lovers, the most important were the Trojan shepherd Anchises, by whom she became the mother of Aeneas, and the handsome youth Adonis (in origin a Semitic nature deity and the consort of Ishtar-Astarte), who was killed by a boar while hunting and was lamented by women at the festival of Adonia.
In the First Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, she seduces the mortal shepherd Anchises. Aphrodite was also the surrogate mother and lover of the mortal shepherd Adonis, who was killed by a wild boar.
The quarrel that ensued between Hera, Athene, and Aphrodite for the prize of beauty was decided by Paris in favour of Aphrodite, who in return secured him the possession of Helen, while Hera and Athene became, from that time onward, the implacable enemies of the whole Trojan race.
The goddesses came down from the heavens and found Paris, and each offered him a great reward if he judged her to be the fairest. Juno offered him power, and Minerva wisdom. But Venus offered him the love of the most beautiful woman in the world. Paris awarded the apple to Venus.
Each of the three goddesses offers Paris a bribe if he will name her the fairest: Hera promises to make him lord of Europe and Asia; Athena promises to make him a great military leader and let him rampage all over Greece; and Aphrodite promises that he will have for his wife the most beautiful woman in the world.
In order to earn his favour, Aphrodite promised Paris the most beautiful woman in the world. Swayed by Aphrodite's offer, Paris chose her as the most beautiful of the goddesses, earning the wrath of Athena and Hera. her daughter and dear parents.
Eris is the Greek goddess and personification of discord and strife. She is an unpopular figure in Greek mythology due to her problematic behaviour and her ability to stir up trouble wherever she goes. Eris is most famous for her Golden Apple of Discord, which played a key role in the cause of the Trojan War.
Eris, the Goddess of Discord, was not invited because of her tendency to cause problems among the gods. Eris was, of course, offended by the slight and created a sure way to cause as much strife as possible. She took a golden apple and inscribed the words “for the fairest” upon it and threw it among the party guests.
As the legend goes, Eris was not invited to the wedding of the gods Peleus and Thetis, as the gods feared she would cause a fight. This enraged Eris, so she showed up with a manipulative trick: she brought a gift of a golden apple, which was to be given to the fairest of them all. She then throws it among the gods.
Hera offered Paris wealth and power; Athena offered to make him the greatest warrior and the most knowledgeable of all men; Aphrodite offered him the hand of the most beautiful mortal woman. Paris chose Aphrodite as the fairest. As such, she gave him the hand of Helen, the most beautiful mortal woman.
There are no hints here that Paris (Alexandros) took Helen by force. Instead, we see that Aphrodite guided Paris to Helen, and apparently, to put it delicately, played "matchmaker" for the two.
Menelaus starts dragging Paris by his helmet towards the Greeks. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, is upset. She protects Paris, because he awarded her the Apple of Discord, back in the day, for which he was promised the love of the world's most beautiful woman, i.e. Helen.
KENKHREIS (Cenchreis) A queen of Kypros (eastern Mediterranean) who boasted that her daughter Myrrha was more beautiful than Aphrodite herself. The goddess cursed the girl to fall in love with and consumate a union with her own father.
It's not that people get cursed, (myths aren't literal) it's that to say something is prettier than Aphrodite is to say something is more beautiful than Beauty itself, which is meaningless/paradoxical.
Aphrodite's title of the most beautiful goddess was confirmed in a contest. It is hardly surprising that the Greeks described Aphrodite as a young, beautiful woman with long hair and a dress that accentuates her feminine curves. She was often portrayed with an apple, shell, dove or swan.