why do they say beware a Greek Bering gifts?

Question

is this question myth or history where did the saying come from?

Answer 1

It goes back to the Trojan Horse in ancient mythology.

The story goes that after a long siege the Greeks apparantly built a huge wooden horse and left it at the gates of Troy while their army seemed to retreat.

The Trojans took it into the city but that night the soldiers hidden inside the horse came out, opened the gates, and let the army in and the siege was over.

Answer 2

They would, in fact, be BEARING gifts. This is from the story of the Greeks who left a wooden horse outside the gates of the city of Troy. The horse was big enough to house many of Achilles' soldiers and when the Trogans took the horse inside the city out of curiosity, the Greeks inside waited till nightfall and climbed down, opening the gates to let the rest of the Greek army into troy and so conquoring the city.
So be careful of presents from Greeks or anyone else, just in case they are not what they seem .

Answer 3

It has everything to do with the trojan horse story. The Greeks left the Trojan horse as a 'gift' for Troy when they pretended to leave. When debating over whether the horse should be taken into the city or not, one of the Trojan priests apparently said ' I fear the Greeks even bringing presents' [that's quoted in Virgil's Aenid]. You all know what happened when the Trojans took the horse into the city!

Answer 4

This is said as reference to the ancient greek story of the Trojan Horse.
The horse was left as a 'gift' to the city of Troy, from their recent enemies, the Greeks.
Once the Trojans had dragged the horse inside Troy, the Greeks leapt out and burned Troy to the ground, killing all it's inhabitants.

So what the saying means is beware of gifts from your enemies.

Answer 5

Sorry, Winkipedia differents from everyone!

The common English expression “beware of Greeks bearing gifts” is derived from Virgil's Aeneid. Although many people think that the story of the Trojan horse comes from Homer, his Iliad ends before Odysseus comes up with the Trojan horse deception. The Odyssey takes place after the fall of Troy. It is Virgil's Aeneid, written in Latin, that fills the gap between those two events earlier described by the Greek Homer.

While “beware of Greeks bearing gifts” is the usual English phrasing, the original quotation from Virgil is quite different: “Whatever it is, I fear Greeks even when they bring gifts.” (Spoken by Laocoon, “Quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.”) The popular English “beware” idiom shortens the original and gives the phrase a bit more punch. German has no equivalent warning based on Virgil, although the German saying, “Vorsicht vor falschen Freunden,” comes closest to the English. (“Beware of false friends.”)

Caesar Augustus commissioned Publius Vergilius Maro (70-19 BC) to author a national epic for Rome. Virgil's Aeneid was written sometime between 29 BC and the poet's death in 19 BC. It tells the story of a minor character from Homer's Iliad who founded a “New Troy” (Rome). It is in the Aeneid that we find the Trojan horse and Laocoon's warning about Greeks and gifts: “I fear Dardanians [Greeks] even when they bear gifts.“ It is these Dardanians, the Greeks, from which German gets the word Danaergeschenk (Dardanian gift).


The Trojan horse was probably a fable.

Hence, that makes this like a quote, like A Rose By Anyother Name....

Answer 6

It goes back to the war of Troy. When the Greeks after ten years of war, saw that they couldn't win through fighting, they resorted to deceit. They built the trojan horse and left it on the beach with an inscription saying that it was a gift.The Greeks had gone into hide and some of them had hid in the horse's belly. So, when the trojans tore part of their wall down to move the horse into the city, at night the greeks came out of the horse and the catastrophe of troy occured. Is this good enough???

Answer 7

its an old quotation from latin..Timeo Danae et dona ferentes. I fear the Greeks even when they bear gifts. Remember the Trojan horse? That was the Greeks.

Answer 8

originates from the trojan horse a large wooden trojan horse was left outside the gates to the city by the helenties (helen of troy) it was wheeled inside what they didnt know it was full of soldiers many in the city were massacred. happen many years BC.

Answer 9

It goes back to the stoy about the Trojan Horse. Watch the movie "Troy" and you'll probably understand.

Answer 10

Try doing some research into the Trojan wars or Trojan Horse