In Greek mythology, when Paris, a prince of Troy, abducted—or, as some sources say, eloped with—Helen, Queen of Sparta, an alliance of Greek city-states sailed across the Aegean to lay siege to the great eastern city. 

As this siege dragged on with no end in sight, a Greek soldier of high cunning, Odysseus, devised a plan: they would build a giant wooden horse, present this horse to the Trojans as a peace offering, hidden inside so as to take the city from within.

The story of the Trojan War—said to have taken place sometime between 12th and 13th century BC—is one of the most famous in world history, immortalized by Homer’s epic poem the Iliad and several other surviving ancient sources.

The Trojan Horse… A Symbol of War Or an Actual Scheme?

It also rests on the edge between fact and fiction, leaving many to wonder how many of these fantastical, larger-than-life events actually happened—the elaborate ruse of the Trojan Horse chief among these. 

To this day a lot of people think that the city of Troy didn’t really exist, and that the Trojan War never actually happened. The ancient city is placed in the same category as Atlantis: possibly inspired by real-world events, but ultimately a work of fantasy.

However, most historians agree that the city of Troy really did exist. What’s more, it’s believed the city was located in modern-day Turkey, at an excavation site first discovered by German archeologist Heinrich Schliemann in 1873.

While evidence of the Trojan War is difficult to come by, the city’s ruins are full of battle scars. Throughout time, archeologists have discovered skeletons, stashes of sling bullets, and fortifications that appear to have been damaged, repaired, and damaged again.

The city of Troy appears to have become uninhabited around 1180 BC, which loosely corresponds to the Late Bronze Age timeframe of the Trojan War offered by Homer and others. Still, it’s unclear if the city met its end through war or natural disaster.

Assuming the Trojan War really took place, what do we make of the Trojan Horse? It’s possible that the horse is a symbol representing other, more conventional features of ancient warfare, like a battering ram. 

Writing for History Today, Julia Kindt, a historian and author of The Trojan Horse and Other Stories: Ten Ancient Creatures That Make Us Human, wonders if the Trojan Horse was really a poetic metaphor for a ship. “After all,” she writes, “Homer calls ships ‘horses of the deep’ and the Greek playwright Euripides compares the horse with ‘the dark hull of a ship.’”

At the same time, she recognizes that the ancient sources—Homer included—all describe the Trojan Horse as a unique, custom-made object. Among other things, they note it was designed by the master carpenter Epeius, built using wood from Mount Ida, and mounted on wheels.

Though sources differ, we are also told the number of people that hid inside the horse. Some say the stowaways totaled no more than 30, while other accounts say there were as many as 100. One source claims there were 3,000 soldiers waiting to emerge.

There are many reasons for why the Greeks could have chosen a horse as their design. As Julia Kindt explains, horses played a central role in many Bronze Age societies. In Greece in particular, they were also associated with Athena, the goddess of warfare. 

Factual or not, the story of the Trojan Horse—and the Trojan War generally—has sparked the imagination of poets and artists for centuries. From the Roman poet Virgil, author of the Aeneid, to 2004’s Troy, starring Brad Pitt as the Greek hero Achilles, the image remains as arresting as when Homer first described it.

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