APHRODITE 
Very well, Paris. I shall undress first, so that you
may discover that I am not just “white-armed”

 

and vain of “ox-eyes,” but that I am equally and
uniformly beautiful all over. Aphrodite, vexed at Hera for twitting her about Anchises, makes fun of her by implying that she has no other beauties than those habitually commended in her by Homer. 
 ATHENA 
Do not let her undress, Paris, until she puts aside
her girdle, for she is an enchantress; otherwise
she may bewitch you with it. See Iliad 14, 214 ff. And indeed she ought
not to appear before you made up to that extent and
bedaubed with all those colours, as if she were a
courtesan in earnest: she ought to show her beauty
unadorned.
 PARIS 
They are right about the girdle, so lay it aside.
 APHRODITE 
Then why do not you take off your helmet, Athena,
and show your head bare, instead of tossing your
plumes at the judge and frightening him? Are you
afraid that you may be criticized for the green glare
of your eyes if it is seen without trappings that inspire
terror? The word with which Homer describes the eyes of Athena had an uncomplimentary sense in Lucian’s time. “Don’t let it trouble you that her eyes are very green (πανύ γλαυκούς), or that they squint and look at each other!” says a girl to her lover about a rival (Dial. Mer. 2,1). And Hephaestus finds Athena very beautiful, but must except her eyes: “To be sure, she has green eyes, but the helmet makes even that a mark of beauty” (Dial. Deor, 13 (vulg. 8)). So caesius in Latin; cf. Lucretius 4, 1161. 
 ATHENA 
There is the helmet for.you: I have taken it off.
 APHRODITE 
There is the girdle for you.




 

 HERA 
Come, let us undress.