The contest of Venus for the golden apple is well known. The Goddess of
Discord, not having been invited to the marriage of Peleus and Thetis,
evinced her disappointment, by throwing among the assembly of the gods, who
were celebrating the nuptials, a golden apple, on which was inscribed,
_Detur pulchriori_. All the goddesses claimed it as their own, and the
contention at first became general; however, Juno, Venus, and Minerva, were
left at last to decide between them, their respective right to beauty.
Neither of the gods was willing, by deciding in favour of one, to draw on
him {69} the enmity of the remaining two, they therefore appointed Paris to
the unenviable task.
[Illustration]
The goddesses appeared before their judge, and endeavoured, by profuse
offers, to influence his decision. Juno promised a kingdom, Minerva glory,
and Venus the fairest woman in the world for a wife. When Paris had heard
their several claims, he adjudged the prize to Venus, and gave her the
apple, to which she seems entitled from her beauty.
The worship of Venus was universally established; statues and temples were
erected to her in every kingdom; and the ancients were fond of paying
homage to a divinity who presided over love, and by whose influence alone,
mankind existed. In her sacrifices, and at the festivals celebrated in her
honour, too much licentiousness prevailed: victims, however, were seldom
offered to her, or her altars stained with blood. The rose, the myrtle, and
the apple, were sacred to Venus; among birds, the dove, the swan, and the
sparrow, were her favourites. The goddess of beauty was represented among
the ancients in different forms. Among the most highly valued, was that in
the temple of Jupiter Olympus, where she was represented by Phidias, as
rising from the sea, and crowned by the goddess of Persuasion.
----------"Phidias his keen chisel swayed
To carve the marble of the matchless maid,
That all the youth of Athens, in amaze,
At that cold beauty, with sad tears did gaze."