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Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes

 

 
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Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes
 
 
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“Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes” is a Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 phrase from Virgil
Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works?the Bucolics , the Georgics and the Aeneid?although several Appendix Vergiliana are also attributed to him....
's Aeneid
Aeneid

The Aeneid is a Latin Epic poetry written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Rome....
 (II, 49). It means “I fear the Danaans (Greeks) even if they bring gifts”.

phrase has its origin in Roman
Roman mythology

Roman mythology, or more appropriately, Latin mythology, refers to the mythology beliefs of the Italic people inhabiting the region of Latium and its main city, Rome....
 or Greek mythology
Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
 and more specifically in the Trojan War
Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta....
. It is a common mistake to translate this literally as "I fear Greeks and bearing gifts," as "et" means "and" in Latin. However, in this case, "et" comes from a contraction of the word "etiam" meaning "even".

After warring on the beaches of Troy for over nine years, Calchas
Calchas

In Greek mythology, Calchas , son of Thestor, was a Argive seer, with a gift for interpreting the flight of birds that he received of Apollo: "as an augur, Calchas had no rival in the camp"....
 induces the leaders of the Danaans
Achaeans

The Achaeans is one of the collective names used for the Greeks in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. The other names are the Danaans and Argives ....
 (Greeks) to offer the Trojan
Troy

Troy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle, and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer....
 peoples the so-called Trojan Horse
Trojan Horse

The "Trojan Horse" refers to the stratagem that allowed the Greeks to finally enter the city of Troy during the Trojan War. In the best-known version of this Bronze Age story, after a fruitless 10-year siege of Troy, the Greeks built a huge figure of a horse, in which a select force of men hid....
.






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“Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes” is a Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 phrase from Virgil
Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works?the Bucolics , the Georgics and the Aeneid?although several Appendix Vergiliana are also attributed to him....
's Aeneid
Aeneid

The Aeneid is a Latin Epic poetry written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Rome....
 (II, 49). It means “I fear the Danaans (Greeks) even if they bring gifts”.

Origin

This phrase has its origin in Roman
Roman mythology

Roman mythology, or more appropriately, Latin mythology, refers to the mythology beliefs of the Italic people inhabiting the region of Latium and its main city, Rome....
 or Greek mythology
Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
 and more specifically in the Trojan War
Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta....
. It is a common mistake to translate this literally as "I fear Greeks and bearing gifts," as "et" means "and" in Latin. However, in this case, "et" comes from a contraction of the word "etiam" meaning "even".

After warring on the beaches of Troy for over nine years, Calchas
Calchas

In Greek mythology, Calchas , son of Thestor, was a Argive seer, with a gift for interpreting the flight of birds that he received of Apollo: "as an augur, Calchas had no rival in the camp"....
 induces the leaders of the Danaans
Achaeans

The Achaeans is one of the collective names used for the Greeks in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. The other names are the Danaans and Argives ....
 (Greeks) to offer the Trojan
Troy

Troy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle, and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer....
 peoples the so-called Trojan Horse
Trojan Horse

The "Trojan Horse" refers to the stratagem that allowed the Greeks to finally enter the city of Troy during the Trojan War. In the best-known version of this Bronze Age story, after a fruitless 10-year siege of Troy, the Greeks built a huge figure of a horse, in which a select force of men hid....
. The Trojan
Troy

Troy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle, and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer....
 priest Laocoön
Laocoön

LACOOON , the son of Acoetes was a Troy priest of Poseidon, , whose rules he had defied, either by marrying and having sons, or by having committed an impiety by making love with his wife in the presence of a cult image in a sanctuary; his minor role in the Epic Cycle narrating the Trojan War was of warning the Trojans in vain against acc...
, however, distrusts it and warns the Trojans not to accept the gift, crying, “Equo ne credite, Teucri! Quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes”, “Do not trust the horse, Trojans! Whatever it is, I fear the Danaans even [if] bearing gifts”. When immediately afterward Laocoön and his two sons are viciously slain by enormous twin serpents, the Trojans assume the horse has been offered at Minerva
Minerva

Minerva was the Roman mythology name of Greek goddess Athena. She was considered to be the virgin goddess of warriors, poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving,crafts, and the inventor of music....
's (Athena's) prompting and interpret Laocoön's death as a sign of her displeasure. Minerva did send the serpents and help to nurture the idea of building the horse, but her intentions were certainly not peaceful, as the deceived Trojans imagined them to be. The Trojans agree unanimously to place the horse atop wheels and roll it through their impenetrable walls. Festivities follow under the assumption that the war is ended. The scout who has been sent to verify the departure of the Greeks is killed after he discovers the Greek fleet hiding in an obscure harbor.

This phrase is quoted by Captain John Patrick Mason (Sean Connery
Sean Connery

Sir Thomas Sean Connery is an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and BAFTA Award winning Scotland actor and film producer who is best known as the first actor to portray James Bond in cinema, starring in seven Bond films....
) and interpreted by Dr. Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage

Nicolas Cage is an United States Academy Award-winning actor, film director, and Film producer, who currently manages his own production company, Saturn Films....
) in the film The Rock
The Rock (film)

The Rock is a 1996 in film Academy Awards-nominated action film that primarily takes place on Alcatraz Island, and the San Francisco Bay area....
, and quoted by Philippe Noiret
Philippe Noiret

Philippe Noiret was a Cinema of France actor....
 in the film La Grande Bouffe
La Grande Bouffe

La Grande Bouffe is a 1973 in film Cinema of France?Cinema of Italy directed by Marco Ferreri. It stars Marcello Mastroianni, Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Piccoli and Philippe Noiret....
. It is also much quoted and discussed in the episode of Yes, Minister "The Bed of Nails."