In
Greek mythology, 'Sinon', a son of Aesimus (son of
Autolycus), or of the crafty
Sisyphus, was a Greek warrior during the
Trojan War. He pretended to have deserted the Greeks and, as a Trojan captive, told the Trojans that the giant wooden horse the Greeks had left behind was intended as a gift to the gods to ensue their safe voyage home. He told them that the horse was made so big that the Trojans would not be able to move it into their city, because if they did they would be invincible to later Achean (Greek) invasion. His story convinced the Trojans because it included the former details as well as an explanation that he was left behind to die by the doing of Odysseus who was his enemy. The Trojans brought the
Trojan Horse into their city against the advice of
Cassandra (given the gift of prophecy by Apollo, but condemned to never be believed for not returning his love) and
Laocoön (because a big serpent came out of the water and ate him). Inside the giant wooden horse were Greek soldiers, who, as night fell, disembarked from the horse and opened the gates of Troy, thus sealing the fate of Troy. See
Virgil, ''
Aeneid'' II, 77.
Remember that this scene is not in the Iliad but the Odyssey and the Aeneid, and in the Aeneid is central to the perspective Vergil builds (in support of the actual Roman sentiment) of the Greeks as cunning, deceitful, and treacherous.
In
the Divine Comedy Dante sees Sinon in the eighth circle of
Hell where, along with other perjurers, he is condemned to suffer a burning fever for all eternity.
William Shakespeare referred to Sinon on several occasions in his work, using him as a symbol of treachery.
Links
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Pictures of Sinon
'other uses of the term'
SINON is a secret International artists collective, the members of which are unknown. The purpose of the SINON artists' anonymity and secrecy is to safeguard their basic rights to create, produce, manufacture and distribute subversive works of art freely and protect them from retaliation both physical and legal by the establishment.
The most recent release by SINON was in 2007 titled, "Sign It !". A short play and audio recording dealing with the brutal torture of Lester Eugene Siler by police. With the FBI/TBI transcript and actual audio cassette recording of the event edited and remixed, "Sign It !" was intended to break from the current trend of presenting performance as "reality", and instead, present "reality" as a theatrical performance and experimental music and text piece.
Links
Lester_Eugene_Siler