1 the capital of France, on the Seine River; pop. 2,175,000. Paris was held by the Romans, who called it Lutetia, and by the Franks, and was established as the capital in 987 under Hugh Capet. It was organized into three parts—the Île de la Cité (an island in the Seine), the Right Bank, and the Left Bank—during the reign of Philippe-Auguste 1180–1223. The city's neoclassical architecture dates from the modernization of the Napoleonic era, which continued under Napoleon III, when the bridges and boulevards of the modern city were built.

2 a commercial city in northeastern Texas; pop. 24,699.

a Trojan prince, the son of Priam and Hecuba. Appointed by the gods to decide who among the three goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite should win a prize for beauty, he awarded it to Aphrodite, who promised him the most beautiful woman in the world—Helen, wife of King Menelaus of Sparta. He abducted Helen, bringing about the Trojan War, in which he killed Achilles but was later himself killed.

, Matthew, see Matthew Paris.