According to legend, the chain of events that led to the Trojan War started at a royal wedding. Peleus, king of the Myrmidons (a race of people created from ants!), was marrying a sea nymph named Thetis. Many gods attended the wedding, but Eris, daughter of Zeus, king of the gods, wasn't invited because she was the goddess of discord and bound to cause trouble. Angry at being excluded, Eris decided to disrupt the wedding banquet. She threw a golden apple marked "for the fairest" among the guests. The goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite were there, and each thought that she was the fairest of them all. They bickered for a while about who deserved the apple, then asked Zeus to decide the matter. But Zeus didn't want to get involved, so he sent them to a prince named Paris or Alexander, the son of King Priam of Troy in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). Despite his royal heritage, Paris had been raised as a simple shepherd after his mother learned in a vision that he would cause the destruction of Troy. Why did Zeus choose Paris to judge the contest? Some say it was because Paris was the most honest person on earth. Or because he was too dumb to know better than to get involved in a dispute between bickering goddess. Perhaps Zeus was being a bit sarcastic toward those bickering goddesses when he chose Paris, who was known as a good judge of cattle. Or perhaps it was simply fate, because the judgement of Paris did indeed lead to the downfall of Troy. The goddesses tried to rig the contest by bribing Paris. Athena promised to help him lead Troy to victory in a war against the Greeks. Hera promised to make him the king of all Europe and Asia. And Aphrodite, the goddess of love, promised to give Paris the most beautiful woman in the world. The beautiful woman sounded better to Paris than power and glory, so he awarded the Apple of Discord to Aphrodite. She sent him to Sparta to collect his prize. There was just one problem. The most beautiful woman in the world was already married.