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GREEK

The Greeks won the Trojan War by hiding inside a giant wooden horse.

After ten years of fighting, the legend says the Greeks built a huge wooden horse, hid soldiers inside, and tricked the Trojans into wheeling it through their gates.

2 min read
The Greeks won the Trojan War by hiding inside a giant wooden horse.
THE FULL STORY

The Trojan War is one of the most famous stories in Greek mythology. According to Homer’s ancient poems, the Greeks sailed across the sea to attack the city of Troy because a Trojan prince had stolen a Greek queen named Helen. The war dragged on for ten long years with neither side winning.

The legend says a Greek hero named Odysseus came up with a clever plan. The Greeks built a huge hollow horse out of wood, hid their best soldiers inside, and left it outside Troy’s walls. They pretended to sail away. The Trojans wheeled the horse into the city as a victory trophy.

That night, the hidden Greeks crept out, opened the gates, and let in the rest of the army. Troy was destroyed by sunrise. Today, computer viruses that sneak in disguised as something useful are still called “Trojan horses” after this 3,000-year-old trick.

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