Stories, legends, myths - The Trojan Horse

We use the phrase "Trojan horse" when a problem has been solved by a trick, or when we want to suggest that a false gift can ruin a relationship or situation from within. Many of you probably also know the story that gave rise to the expression. However, I think it's a beautiful story that deserves to be told again, especially since it is also known as the story the wooden horse (translation from Homer's Greek). Besides, I think it would be good to see if it's just legend or has a hint of truth.

The story is very old, about 2500 years. We know it from Homer's epic poem The Iliad. The legend begins with a competition between three goddesses, Aphrodite, Hera and Athena. Each wanted to win the golden apple with the words "for the most beautiful" written on it. When the young Trojan prince Paris, the judge of the competition, offers the apple to Aphrodite, she gives him the opportunity to marry Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, who was the wife of the Greek king Menelaus. Paris kidnaps Helen and goes with her to Troy, and Menelaus sends an army to bring her back. And so began the war between the Greeks and the Trojans, which lasted 10 years.

At the end of the 10 years, the army led by the Greek general Ulysses was tired and the soldiers wanted to return home. Troy had proved to be a fortified fortress with strong surrounding walls, very difficult to conquer. So Odysseus prayed to the goddess Athena for help to conquer Troy. Athena gave him the idea of building a giant wooden horse inside which he could hide a group of elite soldiers and the rest of the army to simulate a retreat to the sea. Believing it had been abandoned, the horse would be taken inside the city, where the soldiers hidden inside the horse would attack.

Ulysses ordered his men to build the giant horse, which, according to legend, was done in 3 days.

When it was ready, 40 elite soldiers, led by Ulysses, entered through a secret trapdoor inside, hiding. The rest of the army, with the exception of one soldier, mimed retreating to the sea. The remaining soldier convinced the citizens of Troy that he was left, along with his horse, as an offering to the goddess Athena, so that she would not be angry with them for being cowards and overturn the ships.

Despite some voices in the city saying it was a hoax, including the priest Laocoon, through whom the expression "Timeo danaos et dona Ferentes" (I fear the Greeks, even when they give gifts) has survived, the Trojans decide to bring the horse into the city. At night, when everyone was asleep after the great feast held on the occasion of winning the war, the Greeks got off the horse, opened the gates of the fortress to the soldiers who, under cover of night, had returned, slaughtered or took prisoner all the inhabitants and set fire to the fortress.

This is the legend. But is there any truth in it? Did Paris, Ulysses, Helen exist? For a long time it was thought that it was all just a story written for people's entertainment. But in 1884, the German Heinrich Schliemann, an amateur archaeologist, proved that near the ancient Hisarlik hilltop in Turkey there was a great city with its own acropolis, temples and buildings, which was in fact the city of Troy.

In 1871 Schliemann began excavations on Hisarlik Hill near the modern town of Canakkale and discovered even more than he expected. Evidence was found at the site that Troy existed as early as 2500 years before Homer mentioned it and lasted until the 6th century AD. The discovery completely changed the perception of the Homeric poems. Not only was Troy discovered, but it was a large city with almost 10,000 inhabitants, fortifications, defensive walls, towers and a developed city with houses and palaces. Troy was a large port on the Aegean Sea and a great commercial centre of the time. And perhaps at one time Ulysses, Helen or Paris lived in the city.