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There are many people that use the
term Trojan horse to describe a gift that does not really offer what
its appearance intends. This is a term that has ancient background
but many people are not familiar with the story. It is actually
based on a Greek mythological story that has some roots in truth and
others that have been added to it. Here is the story about the
infamous wooden horse and how it came to be a part of our language even
today.
There was a great war that they
gone on for many years. During this war the Greek army had gone in
siege against the city of Troy. Typically a siege would only last
for a year or two before the city was taken over. According to this
legend, however, the city of Troy was under siege for 10 years and
had no end to its survival in sight. The Greek army came up with an
interesting plan that would help them to be able to invade the city
and to breach its walls.
This was actually a plan that was
devised by one of the Greek kings, Odysseus of Ithaca, who was said
to have ruled at that time. They would build a large wooden horse
that was hollow on the inside and would be on wheels. The horse
would then be offered as a peace offering to the city of Troy while
the soldiers that were on the outside of the city would pretend to
retreat and sail back to Greece. The structure would be made
large enough to conceal many Greek soldiers on the inside. It was
then left at the gate in order to be accepted and brought inside the
city.
There was a soldier that was left
behind hidden outside the city that was found by the people of
Troy. He had said that the Greek soldiers had left him behind
because they hated him and that the horse that was outside of their
gates was actually an offering of peace. This, of course, was all
part of the plan to get the soldiers inside the city of Troy.
Not everybody looked at the wheeled
wooden horse as being a gift of peace, but the majority of the inhabitants
of Troy welcomed the idea of a peaceful end to such a long war. The
structure was so large that it reportedly could not fit through the
gate, so they had to tear some of the wall down in order to get it
inside the city. Then the city went about having a huge
celebration.
After the inhabitants of the city
had fallen asleep the soldiers emerged out of the hollow horse and
killed the guards at the city walls. This allowed the remaining
soldiers of the Grecian army who were hiding nearby to come in and
conquer the city. All of the men of the city were put to death and
the women and children were made to be slaves. Although the story
of the Trojan horse is mythological it still teaches us a valuable
lesson today.
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