The Trojan Horse
Unable to take Troy by direct assault, the Greeks use the wooden horse to enter the city and bring the long war toward its end.
The Story
After years of unsuccessful warfare, the Greeks could not capture Troy through direct assault.
The final solution depended upon deception.
A great wooden horse was constructed.
The plan became especially associated with Odysseus, whose intelligence and cunning had repeatedly distinguished him during the war.
A group of Greek warriors concealed themselves inside the horse.
The rest of the Greek army appeared to abandon the siege and sailed away from the immediate view of Troy.
The Trojans discovered the enormous wooden object outside their city.
They had to decide what it meant.
Some suspected a trap.
Others believed that the horse represented an offering connected with the gods and that it should be brought inside Troy.
Warnings were ignored.
The horse was taken through the city's defences.
That decision destroyed the protection which Troy's walls had provided for so many years.
During the night the hidden Greeks emerged.
They opened the way for the returning Greek forces.
The city was attacked from within and without.
The Trojan Horse therefore succeeded where years of open warfare had failed.
Troy did not fall because its walls were finally smashed down.
It fell because the Greeks found a way to make the Trojans carry the enemy through those walls themselves.
The episode became one of the most enduring symbols of deceptive strategy in Western culture.
Key Figures
Why It Matters
The Trojan Horse provides the decisive stratagem leading to the fall of Troy and became one of antiquity's most famous examples of victory achieved through deception rather than direct force.
Traditions & Variations
Ancient accounts vary in their treatment of the horse, its construction, the warriors hidden inside it and the warnings given to the Trojans. Sinon, Laocoön and Cassandra play important roles in several surviving versions.