Trojan Horse
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19th century etching of an imagined Trojan Horse.

The Trojan Horse is part of the Trojan War, as told in Virgil's Latin epic poem The Aeneid. The events of this take place after Homer's Iliad, and before Homer's Odyssey.

Legend

This incident is mentioned in the Odyssey:

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).

Fact or fiction

According to Homer, Troy stood overlooking the Hellespont - a channel of water that separates Asia Minor and Europe. In the 1870s, 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, if any, was the Troy of Homer's poetry.

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 ferentes.

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 [1]:

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 an earthquake that occurred between the wars that could have weakened Troy's walls and left them open for attack.^[2] 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.

The Trojan horse may also refer to the Trojan cavalry lead by Hector. The enemy could have disguised themselves as this cavalry unit and were let back into Troy without question.

Men in the horse

According to the Little Iliad it had 3,000 soldiers in its belly, and 2 spies in its mouth Apollodorus 50,^[3]Tzetzes 23,^[4] Quintus Smyrnaeus gives the names of thirty, and he says that there were more of them.^[5] In late tradition it seems it was standardised at 40. Their names follow:

Images

Any images or constructions are products of the imagination of the artists, as the reality of the circumstances leading to the myth have been lost.

Trojan Horse from the movie Troy

Trojan Horse, at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum

References

1. ^ http://itis.volta.alessandria.it/episteme/newhomer.gif
2. ^ Earthquakes toppled ancient cities: 11/12/97
3. ^ Epitome 5.14
4. ^ Posthomerica 641-650
5. ^ Posthomerica xii.314-335

See also

• Mykonos vase, earliest pottery depiction of the Trojan Horse
• Troy (2004 movie)
• 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."
• The Psychological Operations units of the U.S. Army carry a Trojan Horse in their logo.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Trojan horse

• 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)