Henry Peters Gray's painting depicts the prelude to the legend of Troy, when Paris, a shepherd, awards the golden apple to Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty. She promised him the most beautiful mortal woman in the world if she won, and that woman was Helen, wife of Menelaus, the king of Troy. Their elopement would set off the Trojan War, one of the most important events in Greek mythology, and in the 19th century, one of the great questions was, "Did the Trojan War really happen?"
Archaeology provided the people of the Victorian era with both knowledge of the past, and the information to accurately portray the ancient world in works of art. Thus, if Troy could be found, it would be a very important find. Later in the Victorian era, the ruins of not just one Troy, but several incarnations of Troy were found, along with evidence that suggested the Trojan War actually happened.
German amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann begann digging at Troy in earnest in 1871 and published his findings, including what he called Priam's Treasure, in his book "Trojanische Alterthümer" (Trojan Antiquities) in 1874. These publications and the ensuing "Troia und seine Ruinen" (Troy and its Ruins, 1875) may indeed have rekindled the general interest in Troy and related myths like the Judgement of Paris.
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