Was the use of the "Trojan Horse" real, or simply a myth?

Answer 1

Historians still arent completely sure if it was true or not. Although they do believe it is very probable and has a lot of evidence in its favor.

Answer 2

Some is real, and some isn't. The part where Ulysses (or also called Odysseus) made the idea of building a giant wooden horse to fake a peace gift to the people of Troy, and then creep in through the horse, and attack the Trojans was all real, but just some things in the story, like his encounter with beasts such as Scylla and Calypso are myths. Although I am not sure whether or not it has been proven that it is, I do believe that the Trojan Horse is definetly real. After all, Ulysses (Odysseus) was a very intellegent man of his time, for to be able to think of that marvelous plan for the war that had already gone on for 10 years.

Answer 3

Both.

The tactic has been used before but some of the characters in the Greek myth of the Trojan War were based on real people and real events. There is no proof that the Trojan Horse was used in the war.

Horses were used in sacrifices to Posiedon and were a symbol of Athena the virgin warrior goddess according to the legend the wood used to build the Trojan horse was reused and some accounts state that the Trojan horse sat outside Troy for days before the Trojans knew what to do with it and a Greek spy opened the horse.

According to some historical accounts the character Hercules was based on a Greek warrior who fought in the Trojan war. the more you study ancient history the more the line between fact and fiction becomes blurred.

We may never know for sure the ancients were crafty for example to steal enemy ships the Romans would launch beehives from catapults onto enemy boats to get the enemy sailors to abandon them.

Answer 4

2

Answer 5

No ones ever gonna stop religion! Just like no ones ever gonna stop war! But its not religion that causes any war! Its religious folk who misinterpret their religion of choice! Theres no way there would ever be any wars if the whole world was 100% religious! It doesnt matter what religion but there are NO religions that (if used as directed) can cause a war! And i totally agree with you when you say "There is no war without religion" is just a silly thing to say! But an even sillier thing than that is when people say (and im sure a few fundis will say it here) wars have been caused by atheism! Because they've NOT Just cuz someone is an atheist doesnt mean that not beleiving in god is gonna dictate every single thing that they do! Sorry I know what I said didnt really have much to do with your question! But I just wanted to say it anyway =0)

Answer 6

I don't think it was real.
The only thing we can be certain about is that Troy was conquered and destroyed several times in its history.
Homers story is such a mix of fact and fiction that we can never be sure which is which, it is the same with all the bronze and early iron age stories that we still know today.
On balance, it is not very likely that shrewd merchants like the Trojans would have been daft enough to fall for such a ploy, is it?
Maybe a similar trick was played on some less sophisticated people and then came to be incorporated in Homer's story, at least that is my favourite theory.

Answer 7

Trojan Horse
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Contents [hide]
1 Legend
2 Possible explanation
3 Men in the horse
4 Images
5 References
6 See also
7 External links


For other uses, see Trojan Horse (disambiguation).
The Trojan Horse is part of the myth of the Trojan War, as told in Virgil's Latin epic poem The Aeneid. The events of this myth take place after Homer's Iliad, and before both Homer's The Odyssey and Virgil's The Aeneid.


[edit] Legend
This incident is mentioned in the Odyssey:-(1713-1769)

What a thing was this, too, which that mighty man [Odysseus] 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 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 Ilium . 8.487 ff (trans. Samuel Butler),
The most detailed and most familiar version is in Virgil's Aeneid, Book 2 (trans. John Dryden).


By destiny compell'd, and in despair,
The Greeks grew weary of the tedious war,
And by Minerva's aid a fabric rear'd,
Which like a steed of monstrous height appear'd:
The sides were plank'd with pine; they feign'd it made
For their return, and this the vow they paid.
Thus they pretend, but in the hollow side
Selected numbers of their soldiers hide:
With inward arms the dire machine they load,
And iron bowels stuff the dark abode.
[...] Laocoon, follow'd by a num'rous crowd,
Ran from the fort, and cried, from far, aloud:
‘O wretched countrymen! What fury reigns?
What more than madness has possess'd your brains?
Think you the Grecians from your coasts are gone?
And are Ulysses' arts no better known?
This hollow fabric either must inclose,
Within its blind recess, our secret foes;
Or 't is an engine rais'd above the town,
T' o'erlook the walls, and then to batter down.
Somewhat is sure design'd, by fraud or force:
Trust not their presents, nor admit the horse.’

The Greek siege of Troy had lasted for ten years. The Greeks devised a new ruse: a giant hollow wooden horse. It was built by Epeius and filled with Greek warriors led by Odysseus. The rest of the Greek army appeared to leave, but actually hid behind Tenedos. Meanwhile, a Greek spy, Sinon, convinced the Trojans the horse was a gift despite the warnings of Laocoon and Cassandra; Helen and Deiphobus even investigated the horse; in the end, the Trojans accepted the gift. In ancient times it was customary for a defeated general to surrender his horse to the victorious general in a sign of respect. It should be noted here that the horse was the sacred animal of Poseidon; during the contest with Athena over the patronship of Athens, Poseidon gave men the horse, and Athena gave the olive tree.

The Trojans hugely celebrated the end of the siege, so that, when the Greeks emerged from the horse, the city was in a drunken stupor. The Greek warriors opened the city gates to allow the rest of the army to enter, and the city was pillaged ruthlessly, all the men were killed, and all the women and children were taken into slavery.

The Trojan Bell is an ancillary component to the myth; according to lore, it signaled the beginning of the assault on Troy.

The Trojan horse may or may not actually have been built and used. The only evidence known to modern scholars are literary references written long after the alleged event.

Within the territories of the ancient city of Troy, near the Dardanelles (modern Turkey), is a small museum, founded in 1955, that includes the remnants of the city, along with a wooden horse built in the museum garden to depict the legendary Trojan horse. The wooden horse from the recent film Troy is displayed on the seafront in the nearby town of Çanakkale.

From this mythological episode comes the term Trojan horse as a general term describing an apparent advantage that is actually a trick; "Trojan horse" tactics are those considered sneaky, underhand, deceitful. The term can also refer to a "sneak attack" in general. The term "Trojan" is also widely used today to refer to malicious computer software that looks harmless to the user but actually contains a computer virus or spyware.

Book II of Virgil's Aeneid covers the siege of Troy, and includes these lines spoken by Laocoön:

equo ne credite, Teucri.
quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentis.
Meaning (depending on the translation) "Do not trust the horse, Trojans! Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks even bringing gifts", the lines are the origin of the modern adage to "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts."


[edit] Possible explanation
Pausanias, who lived in the 2nd century AD, wrote on his book Description of Greece [1]:

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 (1,XXIII,8)
where by Phrygians he means the Trojans. There has been some modern speculation that the Trojan Horse may have been a battering ram 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 historians who were not present at the battle and were unaware of that meaning of the name. We know that Assyrians at the time used siege machines with animal names; it is possible that the Trojan Horse was such.


[edit] Men in the horse
According to the Little Iliad it had 3,000 on its belly, Apollodorus 50[1],Tzetzes 23,[2] Quintus Smyrnaeus gives the names of thirty, and he says that there were more of them.[3] In late tradition it seems it was standardised at 40. Their names follow:

Odysseus (leader)
Agapenor
Ajax
Amphidamas
Amphimachus
Anticlus
Antimachus
Antiphates
Calchas
Cyanippus
Demophon
Diomedes
Echion
Epeius
Eumelus
Euryalus
Eurydamas
Eurymachus
Eurypylus
Ialmenus
Idomeneus
Iphidamas
Leonteus
Machaon
Meges
Menelaus
Menestheus
Meriones
Neoptolemus
Acamas
Peneleus
Philoctetes
Podalirius
Polypoetes
Sthenelus
Teucer
Thalpius
Thersander
Thoas
Thrasymedes



[edit] Images

19th century etching of the Trojan Horse

"Trojan Horse" at the site of Troy
See the web site to see the images of the trojan horses. They were real it had to due with war during that time and era.

Answer 8

Yes

Answer 9

It is actually believed to be real, Troy was a real city that was sacked by the Greeks......

Answer 10

yes it was real not a myth