The text that accompanied this illustration reads: To him, at last, the three goddesses entrusted the judgment and the golden apple and the person entrusted is the god Hermes. In Greek legend, Paris was a Trojan prince, the son of Priam and Hecuba. When Eris, the Greek goddess of discord, was not invited to the marriage of the Greek leader Achilles, she threw a golden apple into the festivities, with the words 'for the fairest' written on it. The goddesses Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena each claimed the apple, and Zeus, the king of the gods, had Paris choose which one should get it. Hermes, the messenger god, acts as a guide, arranging the meeting between the goddesses and Paris as seen in this 1907 illustration. Aphrodite promised Paris Helen, queen of Sparta, if he picked her, and so he did. The result was the Trojan War, as the Greeks fought to return Helen to Menelaus, the ruler of Sparta.