An Ancient Beauty Contest

The more Lucilla looks at the coin, the more layers of meaning she discovers. What could Venus be holding in her hand? A round object, like a globe or an orange? No, an apple! Lucilla quickly recalls a passage from Ovid’s Heroides that she learned at homeschooling which describes the famous Judgement of Paris. At the divine wedding of Peleus and Thetis, every (minor) god and goddess is invited except for Eris, goddess of Discord. When she shows up and is consequently sent away, she drops an apple in the midst of Juno, Minerva and Venus addressed ‘to the fairest’.

A contest between the goddesses on who deserves this title ensues, and all three offer different gifts to bribe their chosen judge: the Trojan prince Paris. Juno tries to sway him by promising a throne and title, Minerva offers him glory in war. But it is Venus’ gift, the hand of the beautiful Helen, that wins him over, and thereby Venus is victorious over Juno and Minerva.Ovid, Heroides, 16.51.

Even if Venus had not offered Helen as a prize, Lucilla reckons she would still have been chosen as the victor. Only one look at that gracious body and you are reminded of Venus’ hegemony in the realm of beauty. What is Julia Domna trying to say with this coin? Is she suggesting she would also win every beauty contest? Or maybe just that her family also has ancestral connections to Venus, just like the Julio-Claudians did all those years ago?