Welcome to a new Mythology Sunday, tiktakers!
Today we'll be talking about a very famous figure which is still present in people's
conversations even to this day: The Trojan Horse.
Surely many of you know about it from the movie Troy (2004), but if you don't, we'll
give you a quick summary: One day the king of Sparta, Menelaus, discovered that his wife,
the beautiful Helen, was in Troy with prince Paris.
Some versions of the story say that she was kidnapped, while others say that she fled
out of love.
Either way, Menelaus got extremely angry, and tried to recover Helen by declaring war
on Troy.
He merged his army with the troops from other Greek cities, and all the soldiers headed
to Troy, a walled city.
Thanks to the stone walls surrounding the city, the citizens of Troy lived pretty peacefully,
since nobody had managed to break through them.
The Greek armies attacked the outer walls for ten years, but every attempt to break
into the city ended up failing.
Therefore, one of their most renown generals, Ulysses, devised a different way to infiltrate
the city.
It was clear that it would be impossible by force, so he used his ingenuity instead.
At the time, it was pretty common for an army to offer a gift to their adversaries as a
sign of surrender.
And thus, Ulysses ordered to build a huge wooden horse.
The horse would be hollow, and the plan was to fit a number of Greek soldiers inside.
If the Trojans accepted the gift, then part of the Greek army would be able to get into
the city, and open the gates for the rest of the troops.
And so, the best Greek artisans built the huge wooden horse.
And when they finished it, all of the troops outside of it pretended to retreat, and the
gift was placed at the gates of the city.
Not all the Trojans agreed with accepting the gift, and many people, among them a seer,
warned that the wooden horse was a bad omen… however, either due to superstition, or too
much self-confidence, the Trojans finally decided to accept the gift.
With the horse came a soldier: Sinon.
The Trojans opened the gates and allowed Sinon to come in with the wooden horse.
The citizens were so happy!
The war had finally ended… and they had won!
However… that was just in their imagination, because when nightfall came, Sinon signaled
his troops who were hiding in the distance, and at the same time opened the horse so the
soldiers inside could come out.
They then killed the sentinels so they couldn't warn the city about the Greek armies being
back.
And finally, they all managed to get in, and pandemonium ensued.
That very night, Troy lost the war.
This classic tale has been shared all over the world, and even provides a valuable lesson
at the end, tiktakers.
Nowadays, the expression "Trojan Horse" is usually used to refer to some form of trickery
that someone uses to achieve a particular objective, and it also references poisoned
gifts.
The term became so widespread that even some computer viruses are known as "Trojans", or
Trojan Horses.
Other phrases related to the Trojan War have become popular in people's day to day language.
For instance, the term "Arde Troya", which means "Troy is burning", is sometimes used
by Spanish speakers when there is a fight or a big problem.
This tale has also been known for thousands of years, and it has been depicted in many
different works of art.
The Trojan war has been depicted in movies, shows, books, paintings, and many more mediums.
Tiktakers, it's clear to us that this is a thrilling story, which also leaves us with
a pretty valuable lesson.
Were you familiar with it?
And maybe, do you have your very own Trojan Horse?
Let us know in the comments!