The Trojan Horse

Abstract

Doureios Hippos or the Trojan Horse was the huge wooden structure, built by the Achaeans on Odysseus’ suggestion, hiding a number of fully armed select warriors inside. The Greeks, pretending to depart and give up Troy’s siege, left it before the city walls as offering to the gods. The Trojans, discovering the “offering”, had intense arguments: the suspicious ones maintained that the Greeks should not be trusted, but the pious insisted that the gods should receive what belonged to them. The latter prevailed and eventually it was decided to bring the horse into the city. To this end, they tore down part of the city-walls, to pass the huge structure through the opening. At night, the armed men emerged from their hideaway, overpowered the guards and opened the gates. The lurking Greeks entered the city and conquered it. The events are related in the Odyssey, in the court of Alcinous, king of the Phaeacians, where Demodocus, the bard, was singing of the Trojan War in the presence of Odysseus.