The '
Trojan Horse' is part of the myth of the
Trojan War, as told in
Virgil's
Latin epic poem ''
The Aeneid''. The events of this myth take place after
Homer's ''
Iliad'', and before both Homer's ''
The Odyssey'' and
Virgil's ''
The Aeneid''.
Legend
This incident is mentioned in the ''Odyssey'':-(1713-1769)
:''What a thing was this, too, which that mighty man [Odysseus] wrought and endured in the ''carven horse'', where in all we chiefs of the Argives were sitting, bearing to the Trojans death and fate!''
4.271 ff
: ''But come now, change thy theme, and sing of the building of the 'horse of wood', which Epeius made with Athena's help, the horse which once Odysseus led up into the citadel as a thing of guile, when he had filled it with the men who sacked Ilium .''
8.487 ff (trans.
Samuel Butler)
The most detailed and most familiar version is in Virgil's ''Aeneid'',
Book 2 (trans.
John Dryden).
| :By destiny compell'd, and in despair,:The Greeks grew weary of the tedious war,:And by Minerva's aid a fabric rear'd,:Which like a steed of monstrous height appear'd::The sides were plank'd with pine; they feign'd it made:For their return, and this the vow they paid.:Thus they pretend, but in the hollow side:Selected numbers of their soldiers hide::With inward arms the dire machine they load,:And iron bowels stuff the dark abode.:[...] | | :Laocoon, follow'd by a num'rous crowd,:Ran from the fort, and cried, from far, aloud::‘O wretched countrymen! What fury reigns?:What more than madness has possess'd your brains?:Think you the Grecians from your coasts are gone?:And are Ulysses' arts no better known?:This hollow fabric either must inclose,:Within its blind recess, our secret foes;:Or 't is an engine rais'd above the town,:T' o'erlook the walls, and then to batter down.:Somewhat is sure design'd, by fraud or force::Trust not their presents, nor admit 'the horse'.’ |
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, but actually hid behind
Tenedos. Meanwhile, a Greek spy,
Sinon, convinced the Trojans that the horse was a gift despite the warnings of
Laocoon and
Cassandra;
Helen and
Deiphobus even investigated the horse; in the end, the Trojans accepted the gift. In ancient times it was customary for a defeated general to surrender his horse to the victorious general in a sign of respect. It should be noted here that the horse was the sacred animal of
Poseidon; during the contest with
Athena over the patronage of
Athens, Poseidon gave men the horse, and
Athena gave the
olive tree.
The Trojans hugely celebrated the end of the siege, so that, 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 to enter, and the city was pillaged ruthlessly, all the men were killed, and all the women and children were taken into slavery.
Within the territories of the ancient city of Troy, near the
Dardanelles (modern
Turkey), is a small museum, founded in
1955, that includes the remnants of the city, along with a wooden horse built in the museum garden 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.
From this mythological episode comes the term ''Trojan horse'' as a general term describing an apparent advantage that is actually a trick; "Trojan horse" tactics are those considered sneaky, underhand, deceitful. The term can also refer to a "sneak attack" in general. The term "Trojan" is also widely used today to refer to malicious computer software that looks harmless to the user but actually contains a
computer virus or
spyware.
Fact or Fiction
According to Homer, Troy stood overlooking the Hellespont - a channel of water that separates Asia Minor and Europe. In the 1870's, Heinrich Schliemann set out to find it.
[1]
Following Homer's description, he started to dig at Hisarlik in Turkey and uncovered the ruins of several cities, built one on top of the other. Several of the cities had been destroyed violently, but is not clear which was the Troy of Homer's Legend. Experts are now certain that Troy was a real place.
Book II of Virgil's ''Aeneid''
Book II of
Virgil's ''
Aeneid'' covers the siege of Troy, and includes these lines spoken by
Laocoön:
:''equo ne credite, Teucri.''
:''quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentis.''
Meaning (depending on the translation) "Do not trust the horse, Trojans! Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks even bringing gifts".
This is the origin of the modern adage "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts".
Possible explanations
Pausanias, who lived in the
2nd century AD, wrote on his book
Description of Greece [2]:
:That the work of Epeius was a contrivance to make a breach in the Trojan wall is known to everybody who does not attribute utter silliness to the Phrygians (1,XXIII,8)
where by Phrygians he means the Trojans. There has been some modern speculation that the Trojan Horse may have been a
battering ram resembling, to some extent, a horse, and that the description of the use of this device was then transformed into a myth by later
oral historians who were not present at the battle and were unaware of that meaning of the name.
Assyrians at the time used siege machines with animal names; it is possible that the Trojan Horse was such.
It has also been suggested that the Trojan Horse actually represents a hurricane that occurred between the wars that could have weakened Troy's walls and left them open for attack.
[3] Structural damage on Troy VI—its location being the same as that represented in Homer's Iliad and the artifacts found there suggesting it was a place of great trade and power—shows signs that there was indeed an earthquake. Generally, though, Troy VIIa is believed to be Homer's Troy (see below).
The deity,
Poseidon, had a triple function as a god of the sea, of horses and of earthquakes.
Men in the horse
According to the
Little Iliad it had 3,000 in its belly, and 2 spies in its mouth Apollodorus 50
[1],
Tzetzes 23,
[2] Quintus Smyrnaeus gives the names of thirty, and he says that there were more of them.
[3] In late tradition it seems it was standardised at 40. Their names follow:
Images
References
1. Epitome 5.14
2. Posthomerica 641-650
3. Posthomerica xii.314-335
See also
★
Mykonos vase, earliest pottery depiction of the Trojan Horse
★
Troy movie (2004)
★ The ''
Trojan Rabbit'' in
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
★ "The engine to batter walls (called sometime the horse, and now is named the ram) was the devise of Epeus at Troy."
★ Troy Infomation [www.myspace.com/dave_topo]
-- Pliny The Elder Book 7
External links
★
The Trojan Horse for Kids: another ancient image of the Trojan Horse.
★
Movie : Helen of Troy (1956)
★
Movie : The Trojan Horse (1962)
★
Movie : Troy (2004)
★
The Trojan Horse Massacre
العربية
ä¸å›½
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिनà¥à¤¦à¥€
Italiano
日本語
Português
РуÑÑкий
Español![Last Minute Travel Deals: Make Sure You\](images/articles/thumbs/klastminutethumb.jpg "Last Minute Travel Deals: Make Sure You\")
![Walking in Waikiki: The Sauce-erer\](images/articles/thumbs/waikikidrinkumbrellathumb.jpg "Walking in Waikiki: The Sauce-erer\")
![Fall & Autumn US Staycation Holidays that Won\](images/articles/thumbs/staycationsthumb.jpg "Fall & Autumn US Staycation Holidays that Won\")
