Wooden Horse

The fall of Troy was only accomplished by use of the Wooden Horse which is also called the Trojan Horse.

After ten years of an unsuccessful siege on the walls of Troy, the Greeks devised a plan by which they would pretend to abandon the war and retreat back to their homes; the Greeks built a hollow Wooden Horse, which was filled with Greek soldiers, and left it in front of the gates of Troy; the Trojans saw the horse and debated its significance and fate.

Some of the Trojans thought that the Wooden Horse was a symbol of peace and a tribute to the goddess Athene (Athena); others thought that the Wooden Horse was a trick and should be burned where it stood; the Trojan seer, Laokoon (Laocoon), tried to warn king Priam that the Wooden Horse was a trick and not a peace offering but Poseidon (lord of the Sea), who was clearly on the side of the Greeks, sent one of his giant sea-serpents to kill Laokoon and one (or both) of his sons; Priam assumed that Laokoon was killed because he was giving false prophecy and ordered that the Wooden Horse be brought inside to walls of the city.

The Trojans were ecstatic; they believed that they had survived ten years of fierce fighting and were now ready to accept the Greek’s peace offering; after a day and night of celebration, the Trojans collapsed into a state of wine-induced exhaustion; the Greeks inside the Wooden Horse emerged from hiding and fell upon the unsuspecting Trojans; once the gates of the city were opened, the entire Greek army entered the city and leveled the walls of Troy and killed or enslaved every Trojan citizen.