HOW ULYSSES INVENTED THE DEVICE OF THE HORSE OF TREE

Following Paris’s death, Helen remained captivated in Troy, now taken by Deiphobus, Paris’s brother, due to the Trojans’ refusal to return her to the Greeks, who continued their siege on Troy. Despite their valiant efforts, the Greek attacks on the Trojan walls were repelled, leading them to seek counsel from the prophet Calchas. He advised employing cunning, inspired by an omen involving a hawk and a dove, suggesting deception over direct confrontation.

Ulysses proposed a cunning plan: constructing a massive wooden horse to hide select Greek warriors inside. The plan involved the bulk of the Greek forces pretending to retreat to Tenedos, leaving the horse as a deceitful offering to trick the Trojans into bringing it within their walls. A Greek, unknown by sight to the Trojans, was to convince them that the Greeks had retreated, fearing the wrath of Pallas due to a desecrated image, and that the horse was an offering to appease the goddess. This man would suggest that bringing the horse into Troy would turn Pallas’s favor away from the Greeks. Trusting this, the Trojans would then inadvertently allow the Greek warriors inside the horse to emerge at night, setting the stage for Troy’s downfall by opening its gates to the returning Greek army.

While Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, preferred a straightforward assault, Calchas and others backed Ulysses’s strategy, encouraged by favorable omens. Epeius, a skilled carpenter, swiftly constructed the horse, and Ulysses then recruited brave Greeks to fill it. Sinon volunteered to remain behind to act as the deceptive herald to the Trojans—a role deemed more courageous than combat due to the risk of being disbelieved and killed by the Trojans. Thus, the Greek plan aimed at taking Troy not through strength, but through strategic deception, encapsulating their shift towards cunning as a means to end the ten-year siege.