It seems that Zeus was preparing a wedding banquet for Peleus and Thetis and did not want to invite Eris because of Her reputation as a troublemaker [This is called The Doctrine of the Original Snub ] .

This made Eris angry, and so She fashioned a apple of pure gold [There is historic disagreement concerning whether this apple was of metallic gold or Acapulco Gold - a variety of the herb Cannabis. ] and inscribed upon it Kallisti meaning 'to the prettiest one'. On the day of the fete She rolled it into the banquet hall.

Now, three of the invited goddesses; Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite, each immediately claimed it to belong to herself because of the inscription. They started fighting, and they started throwing punches all over the place.

Finally, Zeus calmed things down and declared that an arbitrator must be selected, which was a reasonable suggestion, and all agreed. He sent them to a shepherd of Troy, whose name was Paris because his mother had a lot of Gaul and had married a Frenchman; but each of the sneaky goddesses tried to outwit the others by going early and offering a bribe to Paris.

Athena offered