January 22: Wedding Month

When the sheperd boy Paris meets the nymph Oinone, it’s love at first sight. They get married and live happily ever after. The End. Or not. Paris can’t help feeling he’s destined for bigger things. He’s convinced that his good looks, wit, charm and intelligence are wasted on herding sheep. So, when he finds out that in fact he’s not a sheperd boy at all, but the son of the Trojan king Priamos, it doesn’t surprise him one bit. And when he’s chosen by the gods to judge the beauty contest between Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, he reaches the top of his fame. Aphrodite promises him the ravishing Spartan queen Helena as a bride, and he forgets all about Oinone and their son together. He sails out to Sparta, to seduce of kidnap Helena, whatever works, and in doing so, he starts the Trojan war. Ten years later, he gets fatally wounded, and it’s then that he returns to his first love, begging her to use her healing powers. “Please, Oinone, we were happy once, remember?...” She remembers. And she sends him away to die. The End.