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--- vehicles:trojan-horse [2024/09/20 05:55] – [Trojan Horse] Humphrey Boa-Gart
+++ vehicles:trojan-horse [2024/09/21 20:19] (current) – [In Ancient Literature] Humphrey Boa-Gart
@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 ====== Trojan Horse ======
-{{wst>fix-stub}}
+[{{ :vehicles:mykonos_vase.jpg?250|Depiction of the Trojan Horse on a vase, c. 750-650 BC.}}]
+The **Trojan Horse** is a legendary vehicle from Greek mythology, purportedly used by the Greek army at the end of the Trojan War to infiltrate //(and subsequently destroy)// the coastal city of Troy. The vehicle - a giant wooden horse designed by Odysseus, King of Ithaca - was conceived as a way to pierce the walls of Troy after a fruitless 10-year siege of the city. The horse was hollow, holding inside of it //(depending on the account)// 30-50 Greek warriors, including Odysseus himself.
+The Greeks, who had pretended to surrender and sail away, left behind the horse, along with a man named Sinon to present the horse to the Trojans as a gift along with news of the surrender. Sinon successfully managed to convince the Trojans to accept the horse, who brought it //(and unbeknownst to them, Odysseus and his men)// inside the city walls. Having successfully infiltrated Troy, Odysseus's men were able to open the gates to the city, allowing the Greek army //(who had since sailed back under the cover of night)// to destroy Troy from the inside and end the war.
+===== In Ancient Literature =====
+[{{ :vehicles:trojanhorse-motte.jpg?300|//"Le cheval de Troie"// by Henri-Paul Motte, 1874}}]
+The legend of the Trojan Horse is detailed in the epic prose of the Greeks and Latins. While there were many accounts, the two most popular surviving ones are that of **Homer** and **Virgil**.
+From Homer's //The Odyssey//:
+> 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!
+>
+> But come now, change thy theme, and sing of the building of the horse of wood, which Epeius made with Athena'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 Ilios.
+From Virgil's //Aeneid, Book II//:
+[{{ :vehicles:trojanhorse-embleton.jpg?300|//"The Horse That Destroyed A City"// by Gary Embleton, 1962}}]
+> 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."
+In ancient times, there was a whole corpus of texts and poems that described the Trojan War and its aftermath known as the **Epic Cycle**, some of which mentioned the legendary horse. There was also a whole genre of texts that spawned from the Epic Cycle. While some of these have survived //(ie: [[wp>The Trojan Women]] and the [[wp>Dictys Cretensis|Dictys of Crete]])//, many are incomplete //(ie: [[wp>Iliupersis]] and the [[wp>Little Iliad]])// while others are lost forever. The horse was also a popular motif on engravings, paintings and vases - again, only of which some have survived to the present day.
+===== The Historical Horse =====
+The historicity of the Trojan Horse //(and the entire Trojan War)// is a continuing matter of debate, as many facts of the matter //(including the original source materials used by Homer and the Epic Cycle)// have been lost forever - typical of events that transpired during the Bronze Age Collapse.
+There are many theories circulating about what the horse really was. Some people take the legend seriously, which is not implausible. Others see the horse as a creative re-imagining of an ancient [[vehicles:siege engine]], or even a type of [[vehicles:boat]] - and those are possibilities as well. Either way, the legend was popular enough to be one of the most well-known tales of the exploits of the Ancient Greeks, even inspiring a [[tactics:trojan-horse|class of software exploits]] of the same name.
+{{tag>Vehicles History}}
-{{tag>Vehicles History Stubs}}

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