The
Trojan Horse is a tale from the
Trojan WarIn Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...
about the stratagem that allowed the Greeks finally to enter the city of
TroyTroy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...
and end the conflict. In the canonical version, after a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden
horseThe horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
, and hid a select force of men inside. The Greeks pretended to sail away, and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy. That night the Greek force crept out of the horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of night. The Greeks entered and destroyed the city of Troy, decisively ending the war.
The main ancient source for the story is the
AeneidThe Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of roughly 10,000 lines in dactylic hexameter...
of
VirgilPublius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
, a
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
epic poem from the time of
AugustusAugustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
. The event does not occur in
HomerIn the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
's
IliadThe Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...
, which ends before the fall of the city, but is referred to in the
OdysseyThe Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
. In the Greek tradition, the horse is called the "Wooden Horse" (Δούρειος Ἵππος, Doúreios Híppos, in the
HomericHomeric Greek is the form of the Greek language that was used by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey. It is an archaic version of Ionic Greek, with admixtures from certain other dialects, such as Aeolic Greek. It later served as the basis of Epic Greek, the language of epic poetry, typically in...
Ionic dialectIonic Greek was a subdialect of the Attic–Ionic dialect group of Ancient Greek .-History:Ionic dialect appears to have spread originally from the Greek mainland across the Aegean at the time of the Dorian invasions, around the 11th Century B.C.By the end of the Greek Dark Ages in the 5th Century...
).
MetaphorA metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
ically a "Trojan Horse" has come to mean any trick or stratagem that causes a target to invite a foe into a securely protected bastion or space. It is also associated with
"malware" computer programsA Trojan horse, or Trojan, is software that appears to perform a desirable function for the user prior to run or install, but steals information or harms the system. The term is derived from the Trojan Horse story in Greek mythology.-Malware:A destructive program that masquerades as a benign...
presented as useful or harmless to induce the user to install and run them.
Literary accounts
According to
Quintus SmyrnaeusQuintus Smyrnaeus, also known as Kointos Smyrnaios , was a Greek epic poet whose Posthomerica, following "after Homer" continues the narration of the Trojan War....
,
OdysseusOdysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
came up with the idea of building a great wooden horse (the horse being the emblem of Troy), hiding a select force inside, and fooling the Trojans into wheeling the horse into the city as a trophy. Under the leadership of Epeios, the Greeks built the wooden horse in three days. Odysseus' plan called for one man to remain outside of the horse; he would act as though the Greeks abandoned him, leaving the horse as a gift for the Trojans. A Greek soldier named
SinonIn Greek mythology, Sinon a son of Aesimus , or of the crafty Sisyphus, was a Greek warrior during the Trojan War...
was the only volunteer for the role. Virgil describes the actual encounter between Sinon and the Trojans: Sinon successfully convinces the Trojans that he has been left behind and that the Greeks are gone. Sinon tells the Trojans that the Horse is an offering to the goddess
AthenaIn Greek mythology, Athena, Athenê, or Athene , also referred to as Pallas Athena/Athene , is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, warfare, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, justice, and skill. Minerva, Athena's Roman incarnation, embodies similar attributes. Athena is...
, meant to atone for the previous desecration of her temple at Troy by the Greeks, and ensure a safe journey home for the Greek fleet. The Horse was built on such a huge size to prevent the Trojans from taking the offering into their city, and thus garnering the favor of Athena for themselves.
While questioning Sinon, the Trojan priest
LaocoönLaocoön the son of Acoetes is a figure in Greek and Roman mythology.-History:Laocoön is a Trojan 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...
guesses the plot and warns the Trojans, in Virgil's famous line "
Timeo Danaos et dona ferentesTimeo Danaos et dona ferentēs is a Latin phrase from Virgil's Aeneid . It has been paraphrased in English as the aphorism "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts", though its literal meaning, "I fear the Greeks, even those bearing gifts", carries a somewhat different nuance to the usual English...
" (I fear Greeks even those bearing gifts).(original:Φοβού τους Δαναούς και δώρας φέρονταις) which became known as 'beware of Greeks bearing gifts," Danaos being the ones who built the
Trojan HorseThe Trojan Horse is a tale from the Trojan War about the stratagem that allowed the Greeks finally to enter the city of Troy and end the conflict. In the canonical version, after a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse, and hid a select force of men inside...
. However, the god Poseidon sent two sea serpents to strangle him and his sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus, before any Trojan believes his warning. According to
ApollodorusThe Bibliotheca , in three books, provides a comprehensive summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends, "the most valuable mythographical work that has come down from ancient times," Aubrey Diller observed, whose "stultifying purpose" was neatly expressed in the epigram noted by...
it was
ApolloApollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
who sent the two serpents since Laocoon had insulted Apollo by sleeping with his wife in front of the "divine image". Helen of Troy also guesses the plot and tries to trick and uncover the Greek men inside the horse by imitating the voices of their wives.
AnticlusIn Greek mythology, Anticlus , son of Ortyx, was one of the Greek warriors who hid inside the Trojan Horse during the siege of Troy....
would have answered, but Odysseus shut his mouth with his hand.
King PriamPriam was the king of Troy during the Trojan War and youngest son of Laomedon. Modern scholars derive his name from the Luwian compound Priimuua, which means "exceptionally courageous".- Marriage and issue :...
's daughter
CassandraIn Greek mythology, Cassandra was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. Her beauty caused Apollo to grant her the gift of prophecy...
, the
soothsayerFortune-telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. The scope of fortune-telling is in principle identical with the practice of divination...
of Troy, insists that the horse would be the downfall of the city and its royal family. She too is ignored, hence their doom and loss of the war.
This incident is mentioned in the
OdysseyThe Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
:
- What a thing was this, too, which that mighty man wrought and endured in the carven horse, wherein 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
There were two characters named Epeius in Greek mythology.#A Greek soldier during the Trojan War. He was the son of Panopeus and had the reputation for being a coward. In the Iliad he participated in the boxing match at the funeral games for Patrocles against Euryalus and won...
made with AthenaIn Greek mythology, Athena, Athenê, or Athene , also referred to as Pallas Athena/Athene , is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, warfare, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, justice, and skill. Minerva, Athena's Roman incarnation, embodies similar attributes. Athena is...
'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 Ilion . 8.487 ff (trans. Samuel ButlerSamuel Butler may refer to:*Samuel Butler , author of Hudibras*Samuel Butler , classical scholar, schoolmaster at Shrewsbury, Bishop of Lichfield...
)
The most detailed and most familiar version is in Virgil's Aeneid, Book II
http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/VirgilAeneidII.htm#_Toc536009309 (trans. A. S. Kline).
After many years have slipped by, the leaders of the Greeks,
opposed by the Fates, and damaged by the war,
build a horse of mountainous size, through Pallas’s divine art,
and weave planks of fir over its ribs:
they pretend it’s a votive offering: this rumour spreads.
They secretly hide a picked body of men, chosen by lot,
there, in the dark body, filling the belly and the huge
cavernous insides with armed warriors.
[...]
Then Laocoön rushes down eagerly from the heights
of the citadel, to confront them all, a large crowd with him,
and shouts from far off: ‘O unhappy citizens, what madness?
Do you think the enemy’s sailed away? Or do you think
any Greek gift’s free of treachery? Is that Ulysses’s reputation?
Either there are Greeks in hiding, concealed by the wood,
or it’s been built as a machine to use against our walls,
or spy on our homes, or fall on the city from above,
or it hides some other trick: Trojans, don’t trust this horse.
Whatever it is, I’m afraid of Greeks even those bearing gifts.’
Book II includes
LaocoönLaocoön the son of Acoetes is a figure in Greek and Roman mythology.-History:Laocoön is a Trojan 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...
saying: "
Equo ne credite, Teucri. Quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentesTimeo Danaos et dona ferentēs is a Latin phrase from Virgil's Aeneid . It has been paraphrased in English as the aphorism "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts", though its literal meaning, "I fear the Greeks, even those bearing gifts", carries a somewhat different nuance to the usual English...
." ("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".
Well before Virgil, the story is also alluded to in Greek classical literature. In
EuripidesEuripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
' play Trojan Women, written in 415 B.C., the god Poseidon proclaims, “For, from his home beneath Parnassus, Phocian Epeus, aided by the craft of Pallas, framed a horse to bear within its womb an armed host, and sent it within the battlements, fraught with death; whence in days to come men shall tell of 'the wooden horse,' with its hidden load of warriors.”
Men in the horse
Thirty soldiers hid in the Trojan horse's belly and two spies in its mouth. Other sources give different numbers:
ApollodorusApollodorus of Athens son of Asclepiades, was a Greek scholar and grammarian. He was a pupil of Diogenes of Babylon, Panaetius the Stoic, and the grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace...
50; Tzetzes 23; and Quintus Smyrnaeus gives the names of thirty, but says there were more. In late tradition the number was standardized at 40. Their names follow:
- Odysseus
Odysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
(leader)
- Acamas
Acamas was a name attributed to several characters in Greek mythology. The following three all fought in the Trojan War, and only the first was not mentioned by Homer....
- Agapenor
Agapenor was in Greek mythology a leader of the Arcadians in the Trojan war. He was a son of Ancaeus, and grandson of Lycurgus. As king of the Arcadians he received sixty ships from Agamemnon, in which he led his Arcadians to Troy. He also occurs among the suitors of Helen...
- Ajax the Lesser
Ajax was a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris. He was called the "lesser" or "Locrian" Ajax, to distinguish him from Ajax the Great, son of Telamon. He was the leader of the Locrian contingent during the Trojan War. He is a significant figure in Homer's Iliad and is also...
- Amphidamas
-Mythology:Amphidamas is the name of six men in Greek mythology.1. Amphidamas, son of Aleus and Cleobule. He was one of the Argonauts, along with his brother Cepheus.2. Amphidamas, father of Nausidame. Nausidame bore Helios a son, Augeas....
- Amphimachus
- Anticlus
In Greek mythology, Anticlus , son of Ortyx, was one of the Greek warriors who hid inside the Trojan Horse during the siege of Troy....
- Antimachus
Antimachus, of Colophon or Claros, Greek poet and grammarian, flourished about 400 BC.Scarcely anything is known of his life. His poetical efforts were not generally appreciated, although he received encouragement from his younger contemporary Plato .His chief works were: an epic Thebais, an...
- Antiphates
In Greek mythology, Antíphatês or Antiphátês is the name of five characters.# Antíphatês, King of the Laestrygones, a mythological tribe of gigantic cannibals. He was married and had a daughter...
- Calchas
In Greek mythology, Calchas , son of Thestor, was an 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"...
- Cyanippus
- Demophon
- Diomedes
Diomedes or Diomed is a hero in Greek mythology, known for his participation in the Trojan War.He was born to Tydeus and Deipyle and later became King of Argos, succeeding his maternal grandfather, Adrastus. In Homer's Iliad Diomedes is regarded alongside Ajax as one of the best warriors of all...
- Echion
In Greek mythology, the name Echion "son of the viper", cf. ἔχις echis "viper") referred to five different beings.*One of the Gigantes.*One of the surviving Spartoi, the "sown men" that sprang up from the dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus; "it was Echion who, for his great valor, was preferred by...
- Epeius
There were two characters named Epeius in Greek mythology.#A Greek soldier during the Trojan War. He was the son of Panopeus and had the reputation for being a coward. In the Iliad he participated in the boxing match at the funeral games for Patrocles against Euryalus and won...
- Eumelus
Eumelus was the name of:*Eumelus of Corinth, an epic poet of the second half of the 8th century BC*Several men in Greek mythology:**Eumelus, who succeeded Admetus as the King of Pherae. He led Pherae and Iolcus in the Trojan War on the side of the Greeks. He was the husband of Iphthime and the son...
- Euryalus
Euryalus refers to several different characters from Greek mythology and classical literature:#In the Aeneid by Virgil, Nisus and Euryalus are ideal friends and lovers, who died during a raid on the Rutulians.# Euryalus was the son of Mecisteus...
- Eurydamas
- Eurymachus
The name Eurymachus, Evrimahos, or Eurýmakhos , is attributed to the following individuals:-Greek mythology:*In Homer’s Odyssey, Eurymachus, son of Polybus, is an Ithacan nobleman and one of the two leading suitors of Penelope, the other being Antinous...
- Eurypylus
In Greek mythology, Eurypylus was the name of several different people.-Son of Thestius:One Eurypylus was a son of Thestius. He participated in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar, during which he insulted Atalanta and was killed by Meleager.-Son of Euaemon:Another Eurypylus was a Thessalian king,...
- Ialmenus
In Greek mythology, Ialmenus was a son of Ares and Astyoche, and twin brother of Ascalaphus. Together with his brother, he sailed with the Argonauts, was among the suitors of Helen and led the Orchomenian contingent in the Trojan War....
- Idomeneus
In Greek mythology, Idomeneus , "strength of Ida") was a Cretan warrior, father of Orsilochus and Chalkiope, son of Deucalion, grandson of Minos and king of Crete. He led the Cretan armies to the Trojan War and was also one of Helen's suitors. Meriones was his charioteer and brother-in-arms...
- Iphidamas
- Leonteus
- Machaon
In Greek mythology, Machaon was a son of Asclepius. With Podalirius, his brother, he led an army from Thessaly in the Trojan War on the side of the Greeks. He, along with his brother, were highly valued surgeons and medics. In the Iliad he was wounded and put out of action by Paris...
- Meges
- Menelaus
Menelaus may refer to;*Menelaus, one of the two most known Atrides, a king of Sparta and son of Atreus and Aerope*Menelaus on the Moon, named after Menelaus of Alexandria.*Menelaus , brother of Ptolemy I Soter...
- Menestheus
Menestheus , the son of Peteus, son of Orneus, son of Erechtheus, was a legendary King of Athens during the Trojan War. He was set up as king by the Dioscuri when Theseus travelled to the underworld, and at his return Menestheus exiled him from the city.Menestheus was one of the suitors of Helen of...
- Meriones
In Greek mythology, Meriones was a son of Molus and Melphis. Molus was a half-brother of Idomeneus. Like other heroes of mythology, Meriones was said to be a descendant of gods. As a grandson of Deucalion , Meriones's ancestors include Zeus, Europa, Helios, and Circe. Meriones possessed the...
- Neoptolemus
Neoptolemus was the son of the warrior Achilles and the princess Deidamia in Greek mythology. Achilles' mother foretold many years before Achilles' birth that there would be a great war. She saw that her only son was to die if he fought in the war...
- Peneleus
In Greek mythology, Peneleus, son of Hippalcimus and Asterope, was an Achaean soldier in the Trojan War.Prior to the beginning of the war, he was said to have sailed with the Argonauts; he also was one of the suitors of Helen, which obliged him to join in the campaign against Troy. He came from...
- Philoctetes
Philoctetes or Philocthetes according to Greek mythology, the son of King Poeas of Meliboea in Thessaly. He was a Greek hero, famed as an archer, and was a participant in the Trojan War. He was the subject of at least two plays by Sophocles, one of which is named after him, and one each by both...
- Podalirius
In Greek mythology, Podalirius or Podalarius was a son of Asclepius. With Machaon, his brother, he led thirty ships from Thessaly in the Trojan War on the side of the Greeks. Like Machaon, he was a legendary healer. He healed Philoctetes, holder of the bow and arrows of Heracles required to end...
- Polypoetes
- Sthenelus
In Greek mythology, Sthenelus was a name attributed to several different individuals.*Son of Perseus and Andromeda, and king of Mycenae.*Son of Capaneus and Evadne, he fought alongside Diomedes and the other Argives in the Trojan War and was one of the men who hid in the Trojan horse...
- Teucer
In Greek mythology Teucer, also Teucrus or Teucris , was the son of King Telamon of Salamis Island and his second wife Hesione, daughter of King Laomedon of Troy. He fought alongside his half-brother, Ajax, in the Trojan War and is the legendary founder of the city Salamis on Cyprus...
- Thalpius
- Thersander
In Homer's Iliad, Thersander was one of the Epigoni, who attacked the city of Thebes in retaliation for the deaths of their fathers, the Seven Against Thebes, who had attempted the same thing. He was the son of Polynices and Argea....
- Thoas
Thoas , son of Andraemon and Gorge, was one of the heroes who fought for the Greeks in the Trojan War. He was a former suitor of Helen of Troy and led a group of forty ships for the Aetolians, one of the larger contingents. In the Iliad it states that he received his lordship because the previous...
- Thrasymedes
You may be looking for Thrasymedes of Paros, the sculptor.In Greek mythology Thrasymedes was a participant in the Trojan War, where he killed two people...
Factual explanations
According to
HomerIn the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
,
TroyTroy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...
stood overlooking the
HellespontThe Dardanelles , formerly known as the Hellespont, is a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with its counterpart the Bosphorus. It is located at approximately...
– a channel of water that separates
Asia MinorAnatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
and
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. In the 1870s,
Heinrich SchliemannHeinrich Schliemann was a German businessman and amateur archaeologist, and an advocate of the historical reality of places mentioned in the works of Homer. Schliemann was an archaeological excavator of Troy, along with the Mycenaean sites Mycenae and Tiryns...
set out to find it. Following Homer's description, he started to dig at
HisarlikHisarlik , often spelled Hissarlik, is the modern name for the site of ancient Troy, also known as Ilion, and is located in what is now Turkey...
in
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
and uncovered the ruins of several cities, built one on top of the other. Several of the cities had been destroyed violently, but it was not clear which, if any, was Homer's Troy.
PausaniasPausanias was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical...
, who lived in the 2nd century AD, wrote in his book Description of Greece "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" where, by Phrygians, he means the Trojans.
There has been modern speculation that the Trojan Horse may have been a
battering ramA battering ram is a siege engine originating in ancient times and designed to break open the masonry walls of fortifications or splinter their wooden gates...
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 historiansOral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews...
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. The deity
PoseidonPoseidon was the god of the sea, and, as "Earth-Shaker," of the earthquakes in Greek mythology. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon...
had a triple function as a god of the sea, of horses, and of earthquakes. 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).
Some authors have suggested that the gift was not a horse with warriors hiding inside, but a boat carrying a peace envoy, and it has also been noted that the terms used to put men in the horse are those used when describing the embarkation of men on a ship.
Images
There are three known surviving classical depictions of the Trojan horse. The earliest is on a fibula brooch dated about 700 BC. The other two are on
reliefRelief is a sculptural technique. The term relief is from the Latin verb levo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is thus to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane...
pithosPithos originally referred in ancient Greek to a large storage jar of a characteristic shape. The word was at one point used by western classical archaeologists to mean the jars uncovered by excavation in Crete and Greece, it has now been taken into the American English language as a general word...
vases from the adjoining Grecian islands
MykonosMykonos is a Greek island, part of the Cyclades, lying between Tinos, Syros, Paros and Naxos. The island spans an area of and rises to an elevation of at its highest point. There are 9,320 inhabitants most of whom live in the largest town, Mykonos, which lies on the west coast. The town is also...
and
TinosTinos is a Greek island situated in the Aegean Sea. It is located in the Cyclades archipelago. In antiquity, Tinos was also known as Ophiussa and Hydroessa . The closest islands are Andros, Delos, and Mykonos...
, both usually dated between 675 and 650 BC, the one from Mykonos being known as the
Mykonos VaseThe Mykonos vase, a pithos, is the earliest dated object which depicts the Trojan Horse during the Trojan War. It was found in 1961 on Mykonos in Greece, for which it is named, by a local islander.-References:...
. Historian Michael Wood, however, dates the Mykonos Vase to the 8th century BC, some 500 years after the supposed time of the war, but before the written accounts attributed by tradition to
HomerIn the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
. Wood concludes from that evidence that the story of the Trojan Horse was in existence prior to the writing of those accounts.