Paris – Doomed Prince

Description

Paris – Doomed Prince – Portrait of Paris, prince of troy. Fated from birth to bring about the downfall of Troy. Paris is seems lived through a somewhat unfortunate series of events. Predicted at birth by the seer Aesacus to be the cause of the destruction of a Troy, it was decided that the infant child must be sacrificed to avert disaster. Priam his father was unable to carry out sentence of death on his own child, and entrusted this task to one of his shepherds. The shepherd, equally unable to take a knife to the child, abandoned the infant Paris in the mountains hoping that nature would take its course. The shepherd returned nine days later to find Paris alive and well and being suckled by a she-bear. Taking this as an omen from the gods the shepherd raised the child as his own, although he was later recognised by his father Priam and taken back into the royal family.

This decision to spare the child combined with the incessant meddling of the gods in his affairs seems to have sealed his fate in accordance with the prophecy. Tricked by Aphrodite into pursuing Helen of Sparta, the wife of Menelaus, his actions give an excuse for the Greeks to besiege and eventually sack the city of Troy.

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