I highly recommend Malcolm Davies article at the Center for Hellenic Studies website. He analyzes the extant fragments of the Cypria and Proclus’ summary of the epic using standard European folk-tale motifs. For those unfamiliar with the Cypria, Davies explains that it explains that Zeus and Themis conspired to ignite the wars at Thebes and Troy with their, “inevitable tally of deaths, as part of a cosmic plan to lighten the burden of the earth, which was being trodden under foot by more and more human beings”
Davies discusses several folk-tale motifs in the myths of the Cypria; one in particular he calls the offended deity syndrome, it can be a crime of commission or omission. This brings us to the next phase in Zeus’ plan the wedding of the hero Peleus and his reluctant bride, the Nereid Thetis. The goddess of strife, Eris is not invited. As Davies points out Eris much like the forgotten fairy at the baptism party in Sleeping Beauty. It is Eris who tosses the golden apple into the midst of the gods engraved with the fateful words “For the fairest”. Davies points out that
“since Greek sacrifice to gods was originally conceived as a feast to which the gods were invited, there is no significant distinction between the two aspects of failure to sacrifice and failure to invite to a festival.” He adds that “A striking feature of… the offended deity’s anger is regularly vented not directly upon the perpetrator of the crime, but on a member of his or her family, more often than not an offspring, and within that category most often a daughter.”
He then proceeds to suggest that Eris’ intent was not just to spoil the reception, but that she was actually arranging “ punishment of the offspring of the offender who failed to invite (her) in the first place, that is, of Achilles. “
The next major event in Themis and Zeus’ plan to “lighten the burden of the earth” is the “Judgement of Paris.” Athena, Aphrodite and Hera each vie for the apple and ask Zeus to decide. Zeus being no fool defers to a Trojan prince named Paris (Alexander) and sends his wife and daughters off to him with Hermes.
“…the dilemma which the “hero” faces when, by gratifying one of the trio, he inevitably ensures the life-long enmity of the remaining two. This is, indeed, precisely Paris’ dilemma. The notion that the powerful protection of the favoured party can somehow overcome or outweigh the ill consequences of the fateful choice.... Paris, choosing Aphrodite, is gifted in love but is forever without talent in the civic and military spheres of his life”. A great contrast, one might add, to his brother Hector.”
(Davies explains it was the) “…wrong choice represented by Paris’ preferring of Aphrodite,” Unarguably, Aphrodite was the wrong choice because she could not stop the death of Paris, all his male relatives, enslavement of the women of Troy and the destruction of the city. Davies and Robert Graves (The Greek Myths, page 19) argue that the winner of such a contest should be the youngest, the “ultimogeniture”. But Hera was from the generation before Athena and (Dione’s daughter) Aphrodite so by Davies definition the wrong choice. Athena was Zeus’ first child. (Hesiod, Theogony 885) This makes Aphrodite as the youngest and still according to Davies the “wrong choice”.
If Paris had free will, which goddess would have been the right choice, I wonder?
Malcolm Davies, "Folk-tale Elements in the Cypria," Classics@ Volume 6: Efimia D. Karakantza, ed. The Center for Hellenic Studies of Harvard University, edition of December 21, 2010.