The Choice That Launched a Thousand Ships?

Aphrodite Persuading Helen to Love Paris (1790). These two started the Trojan War--now, that’s a love affair! It all started when Zeus commanded the Trojan prince Paris to decide who was the fairest among Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena. Paris made a “judgment” to give the prize, a golden apple, to Aphrodite. But that was only because she’d bribed him with the promise of Helen, considered the most beautiful of mortal women. A hitch: Helen was married--to Menelaus, King of Sparta. The painting depicts the artist herself, Angelica Kauffman, as Aphrodite. Adding to the frisson: cooing turtledoves, intertwined tree trunks, Cupid’s pair of arrows, and the couple’s index fingers subtly pointing to each other.