The Story of Troy: Part Seven

Odysseus met with the carpenter Epeuis. Gradually, an enormous horse, wooden and hollow, rose above the Greek camp. On one flank was carved an inscription dedicating the image to Athena and asking in return for a safe voyage home. On the other flank was a hidden trap door. When the horse was finally finished, Odysseus and twenty others climbed up a rope ladder and through the door. Epeius locked it from within. The men listened raptly. There came the sound of the camp burning, as Odysseus had planned. Then they made out the shouts of their comrades launching the fleet and sailing off. Only a soldier named Sinon remained, hiding nearby, as Odysseus ordered.

It was black within the horse’s belly. The men dared not speak. Slowly, night passed. At last, two shafts of sunlight entered through the air holes built into the horse’s ears. Then a voice was heard. Another answered, both in the Trojan tongue. Rigid with attention, the Greeks waited. Silently, they prayed to the gods.

The Trojan scouts who approached the Greek camp were dumbfounded. The smoldering huts were deserted. The fleet was gone. All that remained was the horse towering before them. The war was over! They flew back to Troy.

The great gates opened. Jubilant Trojans streamed out to see the Greeks’ camp and strange offering. Many of them scented deception. “Burn it!” came the shout. “Cut it open with axes!” Priam, however, fearing to harm a gift to Athena, who’d opposed him for so long, believed that the horse should be hauled into Troy.

“The belly holds armed men!” shrieked Cassandra.

“Beware!” cried Laocoon, a priest. “It’s a sham!” He flung a spear into the horse’s side, nearly splitting open the word. Just then, the Greek soldier Sinon appeared. Reciting the tale Odysseus had devised to get the horse brought into Troy, he explained that the horse had been built so tall to keep the Trojans drawing it through their gates. If it were brought in, Sinon said, Calchas had warned that the Trojans would one day lay waste to Greece. Odysseus smiled to hear the crowd clamoring to drag the horse into Troy.

“Lies!” roared Laocoon. Then suddenly, two giant sea serpents left the waves and glided across the sand straight toward him. Coiling about him while the throng watched in awe, they crushed him to death and killed his two sons as well who’d come to his aid. Here was an undeniable sign that Athena’s offering must be respected. On rollers, the horse was pulled to Troy’s gates, where the lintel had to be removed to allow it to pass into the city. The crowd trailed it to Athena’s temple and there laid armloads of flowers about it.