The Trojan Horse: The Battle Of The Trojan War

The Trojan War, in Greek mythology was the war between the Greeks and the people of the city Troy. The conflict began after the Trojan prince Paris abducted Helen, wife of Menelaus of Sparta. When Menelaus demanded her return, the Trojans refused. Menelaus then persuaded his brother Agamemnon to send an army to fight against Troy. Troopships gathered at Aulis, led by the greatest Greek heroes, Achilles, Patroclus, Diomedes, Odysseus, Nestor, and the two warriors named Ajax. Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to Artemis to get the winds that they needed for the journey. The winds they needed came and the fleet set sail for Troy.
The Greeks tormented and destroyed the surrounding cities of Troy for many years but Troy being well fortified
and commanded by Hector and sins of the royal household, Troy held out. The Greeks built a very large hollowed out wooden horse in which a small group of warriors was kept. The other Greeks sailed for home, leaving behind the horse and Sinon, who persuaded the Trojans, despite the warnings of Cassandra and Laocoön, to take the horse within the city walls. At night the Greeks came back; their companions snuck out of the horse and opened the city gates, and Troy was destroyed. The gods took a large interest in the war. Poseidon, Hera, and Athena aided the Greeks, while Aphrodite and Ares favored the Trojans. Zeus and Apollo, although often involved in the action of the war, remained impartial. The things that happened in the final part of the war constitute the main part of the Iliad of Homer. The Iliad of Homer is a poem by the ancient Greek poet Homer, which recounts some of the major events of the final few weeks of the Trojan War and the Greek blockade of the city of Troy. The Trojan War reflected a real war (c.1200 BC) between the invading people of Troas and the Greeks, all over control of trade through Dardanelles. The Trojan War lasted from c. 1194-1184 BC (Traditional Dating) and c. 1260-1180 BC (Modern Dating) or 10 years. It ultimately ended with the destruction of Troy by the Greek soldiers.
The main factor in the war was finding a way into the well-fortified walls of Troy.
This is when Odysseus thought of The Trojan Horse. The Trojan Horse took three days to build, and it was made of wood. The dimensions of the entire Horse including the cart it was rolled in on and the wheels were 50 feet long and 47.5 feet tall. This idea for the Horse will be remembered in history forever and is considered a brilliant plan.
German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann conducted a large excavation in 1870 at the site where the city of troy was. This excavation unearthed a small citadel mound and layers of debris up to 25 meters deep in the ground. Later more advanced studies have document of more than 46 building phases grouped in nine different bands stating the sites inhabitation from 3,000 B.C. until abandonment in A.D. 1350. More recent excavations and studies show an inhabited area 10 times the size of citadel, making Troy an important Bronze Age city.
Bronze Age cities are cities that either smelted or traded bronze. Some of the major heroes during The Trojan War were Achilles, Io, Cyrene, Procne, Philomena, Atlanta, Medea, Antigone, Helen of Troy, Penelope, Hecuba, Andromache, Cassandra, Iphigenia Electra, Harpalyce, and
Camilla.
The Trojan army defending the city of Troy during the war, led by their king Priam, was assisted by a long list of allies like, Carians, Halizones, Kaukonen, Kikones, Lycians,etc.The war involved several exciting fights and battles including Achilles’ fight with the Ethiopian King Memnon and the Amazon Penthesilea who both came to aid the Trojans. Achilles himself was killed by Paris with an arrow that hit his ankle which was his only weak spot. Odysseus and Ajax quarrelled over the hero’s amazing armour. Slaughtering a herd of sheep Ajax thought were Greeks, he fell on his sword in a messy and pointless suicide. Philoctetes avenged for his father, Achilles, by fatally shooting Paris with the legendary bow of Hercules. Finally, Odysseus even managed to get into the city in disguise and steal the sacred Palladion statue of Athena.
The final and plan was the idea of the wooden horse.
Odysseus, inspired by Athena, thought up the ruse to get a body of men inside the walls of Troy. First, all of the Greeks sailed off into the sunset leaving a strange and mysterious gift to the Trojans of a gigantic wooden horse which in reality concealed a group of warriors within. Just to make sure the Trojans took the horse within the city, Sinon was chosen to stay behind and tell a cock and bull story about the Greeks having given up and left a nice present. The Trojans took the horse inside the city walls but while they were enjoying a very drunken celebration of victory, the Greeks climbed out of the horse and opened the city walls for the returning Greek army, and the city was destroyed and the population was killed or enslaved. After Troy was destroyed Helen was taken back to Argos and out of all the Trojan heroes only Aeneas escaped and eventually set up a new home in
Italy.