Stories, legends, myths - The Trojan Horse

We use the expression Trojan horse when a problem has been solved by trickery, or when we want to suggest that a deceitful gift can ruin a relationship or a situation. It is the result of a legend also known as the story the wooden horse (translation from Homer's Greek) and many of you probably know it. If you don't count yourself among them or would like to re-read it, find it below. You will also discover whether it is only legend or has a grain of truth.

Timeo danaos et dona ferentes

The story is very old, about 2500 years old. 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 on which was written for the most beautiful. When the young Trojan prince Paris, the judge of the competition, offers the apple to Aphrodite, she allows him to marry Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, who was the wife of the Greek king Menelaus. Paris kidnaps Helen and takes her to Troy, and Menelaus sends an army led by Odysseus to bring her back. And so began the 10-year war between the Greeks and the Trojans.

By the end of the 10 years, the army led by the Greek general Odysseus was tired and the soldiers longed to return home. Troy turned out to be a fortified city with strong surrounding walls, very difficult to conquer. So Odysseus prayed to the goddess Athena to help him conquer Troy. Athena, angry with the Trojans because of the apple Paris had offered Aphrodite, gave him the idea of building a giant wooden horse inside which he could hide a group of elite soldiers, the rest of the army pretending to retreat to the sea. Suspecting that it has been abandoned, the horse will be taken inside the fortress by the Trojans, and the hidden Greek soldiers will emerge and 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 headed by Ulysses entered through a secret trapdoor inside, hiding. The rest of the army, with the exception of one soldier, mimicked a retreat to the sea. The remaining soldier convinced the citizens of Troy that he had been left with the wooden horse as a sacrifice to the goddess Athena, lest they should be angry at being cowards and overthrow their ships.

Some representatives of the city did not believe the Greek's story among them the priest Laocoon who said: Timeo danaos et dona Ferentes (I fear the Greeks when giving gifts), an expression that has become famous. However, the Trojans decide to bring the horse into the city. At night, when everyone was asleep after the great feast made on the occasion of winning the war, the Greeks got out of the horse, opened the gates of the city to the soldiers who had returned in the shelter of the night, slaughtered or took prisoner all the inhabitants and set fire to the city.

How much is legend and how much truth

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 amusement. But in 1884, the German Heinrich Schliemann, an amateur archaeologist, proved that near the ancient Hisarlik ridge 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's mention of it and lasted until the 6th century AD. The discovery totally changed the perception of the Homeric poems. Not only has it been discovered, but evidence has also been found that Troy was a large fortress with almost 10,000 inhabitants, with fortifications, defensive walls, towers and a highly developed city. Troy was a major port on the Aegean Sea and a great commercial center of the time.

And perhaps, at some point in time, Ulysses, Helen and Paris lived in the citadel.