ABSTRACT
Paris was the son of king Priam of Troy and his queen Hecuba. When she was pregnant with Paris, she dreamed that she gave birth to a flame which burned down Troy. This was interpreted to mean that the child when born would cause the destruction of the city. So when she gave birth to Paris, he was left on Mount Ida nearby to die. But a shepherd found him and brought him up as his own son. Acting as a humble herdsman, Paris grew up to be so handsome that a local nymph and daughter of a river-god called Oenone fell in love with him and married him. Subsequently his true identity was revealed and he was welcomed back into the royal family. When the three goddesses Juno, Minerva and Venus asked him to judge which of them was the most beautiful, Venus bribed him by offering him the most beautiful woman in the world and he accepted the bribe. The woman in question was Helen, wife of Menelaus, who was the king of Sparta (in Greece), and Paris sailed there, seduced Helen and took her back to Troy as his new wife. The Greeks demanded her return, and it is at this point that Oenone writes this letter to Paris, urging him to renew their relationship and give Helen back. He did not return her, so a huge Greek expedition led by Agamemnon (Menelaus’ brother) besieged Troy for ten years to get her back, and finally captured it and burnt it down. Shortly before that Paris was severely wounded and appealed to Oenone to heal him with her great medical skills. After the way he had treated her, she refused. But then she relented and wanted to heal him, but found that he had already died, and so she committed suicide.
