The Trojan Horse a Reason to Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth

Here’s an excerpt from: “What Can Tall Tales…”

The students will enjoy this tidbit about ancient Greece and Rome.

The Trojan Horse A reason to look a gift horse in the mouth

A Fun Fact

In Greek Mythology, the Trojan Horse was disguised as a gift, but secretly let Greek soldiers into Troy.

In computer software, a Trojan Horse is disguised as a legitimate program, but it actually harms the computer.

The Quick Version of the Story…

This story goes back over 3,000 years. . Somewhere around the 12th or 13th century BC, the armies of Ancient Greece squared off against the armies of Troy (a nation-state in Asia Minor, which is currently located near the nation of Turkey) in the famous Trojan War.

The war is wrapped up in legend and myth, but it is said to have started when the King of Troy kidnapped a Greek woman named Helen. Helen just so happened to be the most beautiful woman in the world, and apparently was well worth fighting for. After ten years of brutal warfare, the Greek soldiers were still unable to penetrate the walls of Troy. Then someone came up with a brilliant idea.

The Greeks decided to build a giant wooden horse, and they convinced the Trojans (as the people of Troy were known) that the horse was a gift. There were a few skeptics, but the Trojans decided to allow the wooden horse to enter Troy.

Of course, there was a catch. The Trojan Horse was so large that an entire Greek army was able to hide inside of it. Once the horse was safely inside the city walls, the Greek warriors popped out and gained a victory in the Trojan War.

www.stepawayfromthetextbook.com Here’s an excerpt from: “What Can Tall Tales…”

The students will enjoy this tidbit about ancient Greece and Rome.

What it tells us about World History…

Ironically, there’s a saying that goes, “Never look a gift horse in the mouth.” Obviously, that piece of advice did not originate from the lessons of the Trojan War (the saying actually refers to the practice of judging a horse by looking at its teeth).

The Trojan Horse, along with many of the details of the Trojan War, are a part of Greek Mythology. The war was first recorded by Homer in his epic poems the Iliad and The Odyssey. Both of these poems were written almost 500 years after the Trojan War was said to have been fought.

The specific details of the Trojan Horse were recorded by a poet named Virgil, who wasn’t born until 1,000 years after the war was fought.

With so little to go by, how can anyone be sure that there was a Trojan War? A few ways. For starters, most Greek Mythology came from oral stories that had passed from generation to generation. These stories helped keep alive certain historical events (such as the Trojan War), or they explained how things came to be (for example, why was there an echo when you yelled into a cave, or why did the sun set in the west).

These myths proved to be great starting points for future historians. In the late 1900s, archaeologists used the clues that Homer gave them, and started to excavate in modern day Turkey. After some serious digging, they uncovered the ancient city of Troy. As the stories suggested, there were signs that the city came to an end through war (i.e. slingshot bullets were uncovered) in the 12th century BC. It should be noted, however, that nobody found a giant wooden horse.

Excerpt from: Bache, Ben. "What Can Tall Tales, Superstitions, Traditions, and Urban Legends Teach Us About World History?" Greenville, SC: Homecourt, 2008. Print.