- For other uses, see Trojan Horse (disambiguation).
19th century etching of the Trojan Horse
The Trojan Horse is part of the myth of the Trojan War, as told in the Latin epic poem The Aeneid of Virgil. The events of this myth take place after the Iliad of Homer, and before both The Aeneid and The Odyssey of Homer.
The Greek siege of Troy had lasted for ten years. The Greeks devised a new ruse - a giant hollow wooden horse. It was built by Epeius and filled with Greek warriors led by Odysseus. The rest of the Greek army appeared to leave whilst actually hiding behind Tenedos and the Trojans accepted the horse as a peace offering. A Greek spy, Sinon, convinced the Trojans the horse was a gift despite the warnings of Laocoon and Cassandra. Helen and Deiphobus even investigated the horse. The Trojans celebrated the raising of the siege hugely, and when the Greeks emerged from the horse the city was in a drunken stupor. The Greek warriors opened the city gates to allow the rest of the army access and the city was ruthlessly pillaged — all the men were killed and all the women and children taken into slavery.
The "Trojan Bell" is an ancillary component to the myth that, according to lore, signaled the beginning of the assault of Troy.
The Trojan horse may or may not have been actually built and used. The only evidence we have are written sources that were written long after the alleged event.
The wooden horse from the 2004 film Troy, exhibited at Çanakkale
There is a small museum founded in 1955 within the territories of ancient city Troy, near the Dardanelles (present-day Turkey). The museum includes the remnants of the city and a symbolic wooden horse built in the garden of the museum to depict the legendary Trojan horse. The wooden horse from the recent film Troy is displayed on the seafront in the nearby town of Çanakkale.
Based on this mythological episode, we get the term, Trojan horse, in which a supposed talent or apparent advantage is actually a curse, or "Trojan horse" tactics which are underhand. The term can also refer to a "sneak attack" in general. We also get the Latin phrase:
-
-
-
- equo ne credite, Teucri.
- quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentis.
("Do not trust the horse, Trojans! Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks even bringing gifts.") spoken by Laocoon in Virgil's Aeneid which covers the siege of Troy in Book II. This has led to the modern saying "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts."
Heroes climbing out of the Trojan Horse (fragment, ca. 550 BC)
There has been some modern speculation that the "Trojan Horse" may have in fact have been a battering ram which in some sense resembled a horse, and that the description of the use of this device was then transformed into a myth by subsequent oral historians who were not present at the battle and were unaware of that meaning of the name.
External links
| 
