The Trojan Horse is tricks in the history of warfare, a wooden horse that, according to legend, was used by the Greeks to enter the city of Troy and end the ten-year Trojan War. The horse was the work of Odysseus, the cunning king of Ithaca, and it was built with the help of Athena. The Greeks hid a force of armed men inside the horse, left it outside the walls of Troy, and sailed away. The Trojans, deceived, brought the horse inside the walls, and the hidden warriors opened the gates to the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of darkness. The horse has become a symbol of deception, of the cleverness of the underdog, and of the danger of accepting gifts from strangers.
This profile covers the myth, the historical evidence, the variants, the archaeology, and the cultural legacy of the Trojan Horse.
The Myth of the Trojan Horse
The Trojan Horse is described in detail in the Aeneid of Virgil and in the Odyssey of Homer, and it is also mentioned in the lost Epic Cycle, particularly in the Little Iliad and the Iliou Persis (Sack of Ilion).
According to the most familiar version of the myth, the Greeks had been besieging Troy for ten years, and they were unable to take the city. Odysseus, the most cunning of the Greek heroes, devised a plan. He would build a great wooden horse, hide a force of armed men inside it, and leave it outside the walls of Troy as a supposed offering to Athena. The Greek army would then sail away, leaving only a single Greek, Sinon, to convince the Trojans that the horse was sacred.
The horse was built by the Greek craftsman Epeius, who was said to have been instructed by Athena herself. The horse was hollow, and it was big enough to hold a force of warriors. The Greeks who hid inside the horse included Odysseus, Menelaus, Neoptolemus (the son of Achilles), and others. The number is variously given as 30 or 40 in different sources.
The Greek army sailed away under cover of darkness, hiding behind the island of Tenedos. Sinon, the Greek spy, was left behind, and he told the Trojans a false story of why the horse had been built. According to Sinon, the Greeks had built the horse as a propitiatory offering to Athena to ensure their safe voyage home. If the Trojans brought the horse inside their walls, the goddess would bless them. If they destroyed it, she would destroy them.
The Trojans, divided, debated what to do. Laocoön, a Trojan priest, warned against trusting the horse, crying “Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes” (I fear the Greeks, even when they bring gifts). He was silenced when two great serpents emerged from the sea and crushed him and his two sons to death, an omen the Trojans took as a sign of the horse’s sanctity.
The Trojans brought the horse inside the walls of Troy, and that night, the warriors hidden within it opened the gates to the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of darkness. Troy was sacked and burned, and the Trojan War was over.
The Variations of the Myth
The myth of the Trojan Horse has many variations. In some sources, the horse is described as a wooden horse; in others, as a wooden structure shaped like a horse. In some, the Greeks burn the horse; in others, they simply leave it. In some, the horse is brought inside the walls by pulling it; in others, by carrying it; in still others, by dragging it through a gap in the walls that the Greeks themselves had made.
The fate of Laocoön also varies. In Virgil’s Aeneid, Laocoön and his sons are killed by the serpents as a punishment for his warning against the horse. In other versions, Laocoön is killed by the Greeks, or by the Trojans themselves, for his warning. In still others, the serpents are sent by Apollo to silence him, or by Athena herself.
The identity of the Greek warriors hidden in the horse also varies. In some sources, the warriors include Odysseus, Menelaus, Neoptolemus, Diomedes, Ajax the Lesser, and others. In others, only Odysseus and a small group of chosen warriors are inside. The number of warriors is sometimes given as 30, sometimes as 40, and sometimes as 1,000.
The Historical Evidence
The historical evidence for the Trojan Horse is limited. The story is mentioned in several ancient sources, including Homer’s Odyssey, Virgil’s Aeneid, and the lost Epic Cycle, but no contemporary account of the Trojan War survives. The archaeological evidence from Troy itself does not support the story of a wooden horse, but the archaeology does support the destruction of Troy around 1180 BCE, the right period for the legendary war.
There are several theories about the origin of the story. One theory is that the horse was a metaphor for a battering ram or siege engine, with the warriors representing the soldiers hidden in the engine. Another theory is that the horse was a metaphor for a hidden army, perhaps a force of soldiers hidden in a supply train. Yet another theory is that the horse was a real object, a sacred image that was brought inside the walls as a gift, with the Greeks later taking advantage of the breach in the walls to sack the city.
The phrase “Trojan horse” has come to mean any deceptive gift or strategy, particularly a malicious program disguised as a legitimate one in computer security. The first known use of the phrase in a military context is from the Roman poet Virgil, and the phrase has been used in English since the 16th century.
The Trojan Horse in Art
The Trojan Horse has been a popular subject in Western art since antiquity. The most famous surviving depiction is the Laocoön group, a Hellenistic sculpture now in the Vatican Museums, which shows the Trojan priest and his sons being killed by the serpents. Other depictions include the woodcuts of the Trojan Horse in the Renaissance editions of the Aeneid, the paintings of the sack of Troy by Tintoretto, and countless Greek vase paintings.
The image of the horse being brought into Troy has been a favorite of artists, who have used it to explore themes of deception, the danger of gifts, and the cleverness of the underdog. The most famous modern depictions include the 2004 film Troy, the 2018 BBC/Netflix series Troy: Fall of a City, and the 1997 video game Age of Empires, which includes the Trojan Horse as a strategic option.
The Trojan Horse in the Modern World
The phrase “Trojan Horse” has entered the modern vocabulary in a number of ways. In computer security, a “Trojan horse” is a malicious program disguised as a legitimate one, which allows an attacker to gain unauthorized access to a computer. The phrase was in use in computer-security circles by the early 1970s and entered wide circulation with the rise of personal computing in the 1980s.
In politics, a “Trojan horse” is any strategy that uses deception to gain entry into a position of power. The phrase has been used to describe a wide range of political maneuvers, including the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision, which some critics described as a “Trojan horse” for corporate political spending.
The Trojan Horse has also been used as a symbol in popular culture. The 2004 film Troy builds to the construction of the horse and the sack of the city as its climax. The 2018 BBC/Netflix series Troy: Fall of a City features the construction of the horse as a major plot point.
The Legacy of the Trojan Horse
The Trojan Horse is symbols of Western culture. The phrase “Trojan horse” has entered every major language, and the story of the Greek trick has been retold in countless works of literature, art, and film. The horse has become a symbol of the cleverness of the underdog, the danger of accepting gifts from strangers, and the power of deception in warfare.
The most famous version of the story is in Virgil’s Aeneid, and the phrase “Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes” has become a standard quotation in Western literature. The story has been retold by Chaucer, Shakespeare, and many other major writers. The horse has also been used in psychology as a symbol of hidden dangers, and in marketing as a symbol of clever strategies.
For more on the mythological context, see our guide to the Trojan War, and our profiles of Odysseus, Achilles, and Aeneas. For more on the cultural legacy, see our guide to Greek mythology in modern culture.