Good
day, herdsman.
 PARIS 
Good day to you also, young man. But who are
you, to have come here to see me, and who are these
women whom you have with you? They are not of a
sort to roam the mountains, being so beautiful.


 

 HERMES 
They are not women; it is Hera and Athena and
Aphrodite whom you see, Paris, and I am Hermes,
sent by Zeus—but why do you tremble and turn
pale? Don't be afraid; it is nothing terrible. He
bids you be judge of thelr beauty, saying that as you
are handsome yourself and also well schooled in all
that concerns love, he turns over the decision to you.
You will find out the prize for the contest if you
read the writing on the apple.
 PARIS 
Come, let me see what it says; “The fairest
may have me.”—How could I, Lord Hermes, a mere
mortal and a countryman, be judge of an extraordinary spectacle, too sublime for a herdsman? To
decide such matters better befits dainty, city-bred
folk. As for me, I could perhaps pass judgement as
an expert between two she-goats, as to which is the
more beautiful, or between two heifers;