The Trojan Horse is the protagonist of one of the most famous stories or myths of antiquity. And, fortunately for many travelers who come to Turkey, it is closely related to this territory. But do you know what exactly it was and what is the meaning attributed to it today? And also, do you know that you can visit it during your tour? In this post we tell you all about it.
Myth of the Trojan Horse
Although the historical basis of the myth of the Trojan Horse is not clear, this episode is known to us from various literary sources. It is framed in the context of the Trojan War and, although Homer narrated that conflict in the Iliad, it is not in that work where he mentions it, but in his famous Odyssey. Later, authors such as Virgil, in the Aeneid, expanded his account.
After 9 years of war of the Achaean (Greek) armies against Troy and its allies (in Asia Minor, now Turkey), the former realized that they were unable to surrender that city by force, so they plotted a great deception: making them believe they were the victors, the Achaeans sent a large wooden horse as a supposed offering to the gods, which the Trojans accepted, allowing their entry through the walls.
What the Trojans did not know was that, inside the contraption, dozens of soldiers were hiding. At night, with their guard down due to the celebrations of the fictitious victory, the soldiers went out through the hatch, got rid of the sentries and opened the city gates for the Achaean armies to enter. This facilitated the seizure and sacking of the city.
Current meaning of the Trojan Horse
The term “Trojan horse” is still used today in the sense of an apparently harmless gadget that later causes dire consequences. Therefore, in some countries such as Argentina, the term “Greek present” is used as a gift idea that, far from causing pleasure and benefits, will entail important damages.
The metaphor of the Trojan horse applies especially to something external that enters another place in order to unleash its destruction from within, as did the Achaean device itself, which gained access to the inside of the walls from the outside. Precisely for this reason, the most famous type of computer virus is the “Trojan“: an apparently harmless program that enters the system and, from the inside, infects it and causes it to deteriorate.
Where to see the Trojan Horse
The myth of the Trojan Horse is so famous in the world that the Turks have not missed the opportunity to turn it into a tourist attraction. For this reason, several recreations of this contraption can be seen in Troy and its surroundings. The first of them, at the entrance to the archaeological site of Troy, to welcome visitors and put them in context of the great deeds that could be done here. By the disposition of its legs, the animal seems to want to take impulse, and is conceived as a small viewpoint that can be climbed, with windows in its body and load.
And the second, much more cinematographic, in the Moorabbin Park in the city of Çanakkale, very close to the archaeological site of Troy. In this case, the horse will be familiar to many travelers, as it is the same one used in the movie Troy (2004), starring Brad Pitt. Its producer, Warner Bros Pictures, gave it to the city as a gift and since then it has become one of the tourist icons, located in a very photogenic place, next to the Marina. It is also made of wood, in this case with a more realistic design, in an attitude of repose but with his head down, in a disguised gesture of restraint.
