There is a legend according to which the Trojan War took place in the 13th century BC. It began because the son of the Trojan royal family, Paris, kidnapped Helen, the wife of the Spartan king Menelaus. The ruler, as expected, was very angry about this and immediately declared war on the ancient city of Troy. Most of this legendary event is known from the ancient Greek work “The Iliad,” written by the poet Homer. It is believed that this war lasted as long as 10 years, and for a long time Greek soldiers stood at the gates of Troy and could not get inside. This continued until they came up with a brilliant idea – they left a wooden structure in the shape of a horse near the city, inside which armed Greeks were hiding. The residents of Troy decided that this was an offering to the goddess Athena, and dragged the horse inside the city. At night, warriors emerged from it and defeated the city. It sounds cunning and epic, but how true is it all?
The Trojan horse is one of the most cunning military structures
Did the ancient city exist Troy
We know most of the details about the Trojan War from Homer’s works “Iliad” and “Odyssey”. Also, plenty of films have been made about this legendary event – for example, back in 1911, the Italian short film “The Fall of Troy” was shot. Among modern films, the most famous is the 2004 film “Troy” starring Brad Pitt.
Brad Pitt in the movie “Troy”
The story of the siege of the city of Troy is very interesting, but scientists have no convincing evidence that this actually happened. There is evidence that the city of Troy actually existed – it could stand on the current Hisarlik hill in western Turkey. In the 1870s, the German explorer Heinrich Schliemann discovered a small number of arrowheads at this site, as well as traces of a fire.
The layer of sediments in which these artifacts were found dated back to approximately 1200 BC. With a stretch, this date coincides with the times of events that were mentioned in Homer's Iliad. Perhaps a legendary battle was fought on this land a long time ago, but again, no one wants to confidently connect these finds with the events of the 10-year war.
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Is it possible to find the remains of the Trojan Horse
The legendary Trojan Horse, with the help of which the Greeks penetrated the city of Troy and destroyed it, is also mentioned in the epic work of Homer. However, he writes about this only briefly. Much more is written about this cunning structure in the work “Aeneid”, composed by the Roman poet Virgil. But this epic was written thousands of years after the supposed events. So scientists are not particularly inclined to believe in the real existence of the Trojan Horse.
Trojan horse inside Troy. Image source: m24.ru
Some researchers suggest that the Trojan Horse was not literal, but metaphorical. For example, researcher Armand D'Angur suggests that if the ancient city of Troy really existed and was located on the Hissarlik hill, the Greeks could cover their siege weapons with horse hides and protect them from fire. In the same way, battering rams and other military vehicles could be called “Trojan horses.”
Even if a huge Trojan horse existed, and was actually located inside the city of Troy, archaeologists will never find its remains. This is primarily due to the fact that during the destruction of the ancient city it could have burned to the ground. And if by some miracle it was preserved, it definitely decomposed in the soil – after all, many thousands of years have passed since the legendary Trojan War.
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What is a Trojan Horse
Based on everything written above, it follows that we are unlikely to ever know the whole truth about the Trojan Horse. The only way to get to the truth is through time travel, but such technology does not exist yet and sounds like science fiction.
Today, “Trojan horse” is called everything that quietly invades inside and causes damage. For example, Trojans are commonly called computer viruses that disguise themselves as safe code and then do their dirty deeds.
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Another mysterious object, the reality of whose existence scientists cannot believe, is Noah’s Ark. There is an assumption that the trace of this huge vessel is on Mount Ararat. During scientific research, it was found that there are indeed traces of human activity there, which date back to 5000–3000 BC. But archaeologists still doubt that they have found that same legendary object.