Trojan Horse

The Trojan Horse was something that is very known to Ancient Greek mythology.

This was a story that involves Athens and Sparta.

War

During the Trojan War, Greece fought against the city of Troy.

This battle started in the 13^th century and started because the prince of Troy, Prince Paris, took the Spartan queen, Queen Helen from her husband.

The Trojan War is something that no one is really sure if it happened or not but if it did, it was over jealousy.

According to the legend, Queen Helen fell in love with Prince Paris and they decided that they would be together.

When the Spartan king, King Menelaus found this out, he was angry, and he demanded that Queen Helen come back to him.

The Trojans decided that they would fight against the King so that she did not have to go back.

Many of the Greeks decided that they would fight on King Menelaus’ side and they went to the Aegean Sea so that they could fight against Troy.

According to legend, this is when Achilles fought.

There were thousands of warriors there, so many that they needed over 1,000 different ships to get all of the men there.

Troy

Troy was a powerful city and it knew how to defend itself form enemies.

They even had a wall that went all away around the city so that invaders could not come into the land.

If someone came up to the wall, the Trojan army would shoot them with arrows before they were even able to get into the city.

The Trojan army was safe inside of their walls and they were able to defeat enemies as they entered their city.

Fighting

During this time, the Greeks had wanted to invade the walls of Troy and to force them to tear them down.

They tried and tried and never were able to find a way inside of the walls.

The Greeks could not even seem to find a way to get into the wall, it was as if the city was completely encompassed with the wall, no one in and no one out.

Idea

Later, after the Greeks were ready to give up, Odysseus, one of the Greek generals had an amazing idea.

He thought that if they could trick the Trojans and get into the city, then they could fight them and win.

Odysseus had an idea and he had the Greeks build a huge horse that was wood and was hollow in the century.  This was a beautiful horse and was very strong and heavy.

They took the horse and left it outside of the gates of Troy.

Even though the Trojans were very careful, they brought the horse in.

But this was a trick.  The Greek warriors decided that they would leave the horse and pretend to go away.

Once they went away, the Trojan army brought the horse inside of the city.

The horse was the center of display in their city and they thought that it was a peace gift from the Greeks.

Later that night, when everyone was sleeping, the Greeks that had been hiding inside of the horse rushed out and defeated Troy.

Myth

No one is really sure if this was a real thing or if the Trojan horse was a myth.

Even though Troy was a city that wanted to fight with Greece, no one is really sure if the legend is true and if they won the war because of the trojan horse or if the legend was made up.

Facts About the Trojan Horse:

• According to legend, Aeneas escaped when the city of Troy was burning and went to a Roman State.
• The war is written in the Iliad, which is a poem by Homer.
• The gods were supposedly there to take sides and to help Athens win the war.
• Some of the famous fighters during this war were Achilles, Hector and Paris.
• The Troy’s thought that the Trojan horse was a sign of surrender from the Greeks.
• Some believe the war happened but that the Trojan horse story is probably just a story.

 

What Did You Learn?

1. What was the Trojan horse?  The Trojan horse was a horse that was taken to Troy.
2. Why was the horse important? The Trojan horse was hollow, and the Greeks hid inside until the Troy’s brought it in and were asleep.
3. What did the Trojan horse do? The Trojan horse allowed the Greeks to defeat the city of Troy.
4. Why did the war happen between Troy and Greeks? The war happened because the Troy prince wanted to marry the queen of Sparta that was married to the King.
5. Was the Trojan horse real? No one knows if the Trojan horse is real or if it is a legend.