Ten Years of War

For ten years, the Greeks fought under the walls of Troy. The walls did not fall.

The war began because of a woman. Helen was the wife of Menelaus, a Greek king. Then Paris, a prince of Troy, took her away to his city. Menelaus wanted her back. The Greeks came to Troy with a thousand ships and a great army.

But the walls of Troy were high and strong. Every year the Greeks tried to break them, and every year they failed. Many men died on both sides. Hector, the best fighter of Troy, was dead. So was Achilles, the best of the Greeks. The soldiers were tired, and they wanted to go home.

Then Odysseus, the cleverest of the Greeks, had an idea.

"We cannot break the walls," he said. "So the Trojans must open the gates for us."

A Greek called Epeius built a horse out of wood. The goddess Athena helped him. The horse was taller than a house, and it was empty inside.

One night, the best Greek soldiers climbed into the horse. Odysseus was one of them, and Menelaus was another. Pyrrhus, the young son of Achilles, was there too. They sat in the dark and did not make a sound.

The other Greeks burned their camp. Then they got into their ships and sailed away. But they did not go home. They hid behind Tenedos, a small island near the coast, and they waited.

In the morning, the people of Troy looked out from their walls. The beach was empty. The Greek ships were gone. Only the great wooden horse stood on the sand.

"The war is over!" they shouted. "The Greeks have gone home!"

They opened the gates and ran down to see the horse.

"What is it?" they asked. "Why did the Greeks leave it here?"

Some people wanted to pull it into the city. Others wanted to burn it, or push it into the sea.

Then Laocoön, a priest, came running down from the city.

"Have you all gone mad?" he shouted. "Do you really think the Greeks have gone? Maybe there are soldiers inside this wood! Don't trust this horse. I am afraid of the Greeks, even when they bring gifts."

He threw his spear at the horse. It hit the side, and the horse made a deep, empty sound. The Trojans heard it. But they wanted the war to be over.

Sinon's Story

Just then, some shepherds came with a young Greek. His hands were tied behind his back. They brought him to Priam, the King of Troy.

"My name is Sinon," he said. He was crying. "The Greeks hated me. Odysseus hated me most of all. They wanted to kill me, so I ran away and hid in the grass by a lake."

"Free him," Priam told the shepherds. "Now, young man: what is this horse?"

"It is a gift for the goddess Athena," Sinon said. "The Greeks made it big so it could not go through your gates. If you hurt it, Athena will destroy your city. But if the horse goes inside your walls, Troy will be safe forever."

The Trojans believed him. They believed his tears, too. The Greeks left Sinon there to tell this story.

Laocoön was standing by the sea with his two young sons. Two huge snakes came out of the water. They went straight to the boys and wrapped around them. Laocoön ran to help, and the snakes took him too. In a few moments, all three were dead. Then the snakes went up the hill to Athena's temple and hid at the feet of her statue.

Fear went through the crowd.

"Laocoön hit Athena's gift with his spear," people said. "Now the gods are angry with him. Sinon is telling the truth!"

So the Trojans tied ropes to the horse and pulled it towards the city. It was too big for the gate, so they broke part of their own wall. Children sang and put their hands on the ropes. Four times the horse stopped at the gate. Four times, there was a sound of metal inside it. The Trojans did not stop.

Cassandra, the King's daughter, cried out. "Stop! This horse will kill us all!"

Nobody listened. The god Apollo gave Cassandra the power to see the future. Then he made sure that nobody believed her.

That night, the whole city celebrated. People sang and danced and drank wine in the streets. Then they slept deeply. It was the last night of Troy.

In the dark, the Greek ships came back from Tenedos. A fire burned on one ship. It was the sign for Sinon.

He walked to the horse and opened a door in its side. One by one, the Greek soldiers climbed down a rope. Epeius, the man who built the horse, came down with them. They killed the guards and opened the gates. The Greek army ran into the sleeping city.

Hector's Ghost

Far from the gates, in a house behind tall trees, a man called Aeneas was asleep. He was a prince of Troy. His mother was the goddess Aphrodite.

In his dream, Hector stood in front of him. Hector was dead. Achilles killed him under the walls of Troy and pulled his body behind his horses. Now he looked just like that. His face and feet were black with blood and dust. He was crying.

"Hector!" Aeneas said in the dream. "We waited so long for you. Where have you been? Why do I see these wounds?"

Hector did not answer his questions.

"Run, son of a goddess," he said. "Get away from this fire. The Greeks hold the walls. Troy is falling. If anyone could save Troy, I could. Now Troy gives you her gods. Take them. Go across the sea and find them a new city."

Then he brought out the holy fire of Troy and put it in Aeneas's hands.

Aeneas woke up. There was noise everywhere. He climbed up to the roof and listened. His neighbour's house was on fire. The sea was red with the light. Men were shouting. Now he understood the trick with the horse.

He took his sword. He could not save the city, but he could fight.

Aeneas went out into the dark, and some young Trojans followed him. One of them was Coroebus. He came to Troy because he loved Cassandra. He did not listen to her either.

"The gods have left Troy," Aeneas told them. "The city is burning. Let's die fighting."

Dead men lay in the streets and at the doors of the temples. Then a group of Greeks came towards them. Their leader, Androgeos, thought they were Greeks too.

"Hurry, men!" he shouted. "The others are already taking the city. Have you just come from the ships?"

Nobody answered. He understood too late. The Trojans killed him and all his men.

"We can use this," Coroebus said. "Put on their helmets. Take their shields. Is it a trick? Who asks that in a war?"

So they put on the Greek armour. In the dark, the Greeks thought they were friends, and the Trojans killed many of them.

Then they saw Cassandra. Greek soldiers were pulling her out of Athena's temple by her hair. Her hands were tied. Coroebus ran at the soldiers, and the others ran after him.

Now the trick turned against them. Trojans on the temple roof saw Greek helmets below and threw spears at them. Then the real Greeks heard their Trojan voices. Coroebus died at the altar of Athena. Nearly all of them died. Aeneas and two friends got away. They heard shouts from the king's palace, and they ran there.

Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, broke down the palace doors with an axe. Inside, women were screaming. Soon the halls were full of Greek soldiers.

King Priam was an old man. He put on the armour of his young days and took his sword. His wife Hecuba stopped him.

"Not even Hector could help us now," she said. "Come to the altar. We will be safe there, or we will die together."

She pulled him to the altar in the middle of the palace.

Then Polites, one of the king's sons, ran into the hall. He was hurt, and Pyrrhus was running behind him with a spear. The young man fell at his parents' feet and died.

Priam stood up.

"The gods will pay you for this," he said to Pyrrhus. "You killed a son in front of his father. Achilles was not like you. He gave me Hector's body and sent me home."

He threw his spear. It hit the shield and did no harm.

"Then go and tell my father about me," Pyrrhus said. "Now die."

He pulled the old king to the altar by his hair and killed him with his sword. Priam was the king of Troy and of all Asia. Now he lay on the ground, a body without a name.

Fathers and Sons

Aeneas saw the king die. He thought of his own father, Anchises, an old man like Priam. His friends were all gone.

Then a bright light came through the smoke. It was his mother, Aphrodite. She took his hand.

"My son, where is your father?" she said. "Where are your wife and your boy? The Greeks are all around them. Do not blame Helen or Paris for this. The gods are destroying Troy. Look."

She took the cloud from his eyes, and he saw them. Poseidon was shaking the walls. Hera stood at the gates with a sword. Athena sat on the highest tower in a storm cloud. And Zeus himself gave the Greeks their strength.

"Run, my son," Aphrodite said. "I will take you to your father's door." Then she was gone.

Aeneas ran home through the fire. But his father did not want to leave.

"You are young and strong," Anchises said. "Go. I will stay here and die in my own house."

His wife Creusa cried. The boy cried. Aeneas took his sword again.

"Then we all die here," he said. "Pyrrhus is coming. He killed the son in front of the father, and the father at the altar."

Creusa fell at his feet and held up their son, Iulus.

Then a small fire appeared on the boy's head. It moved in his hair, but it did not burn him. Anchises looked up.

"Zeus, if this sign is from you, show us again," he said.

There was thunder, and a star fell across the sky and into the forest on Mount Ida.

"Now I will go," the old man said. "Gods of my fathers, save my house. Save my grandson."

Aeneas took his father on his back. He took Iulus by the hand. Anchises carried the gods of Troy. Creusa walked behind them. Before, Aeneas was not afraid of a hundred Greek spears. Now every sound in the dark frightened him.

Near the gate, Anchises heard feet on the road.

"Run, my son!" he said. "I see their shields!"

Aeneas left the streets he knew and ran through small dark ways. Somewhere there, he lost Creusa. Did she stop? Did she lose her way? Did she sit down, too tired to go on? He never knew. Outside the city, at an old temple, he looked back for the first time. Everyone was there except his wife.

Aeneas left his father and son with friends and went back into the burning city alone. At Hera's temple, Odysseus stood guard over the gold from the temples of Troy. Women and boys stood in a long line. They were slaves now.

Aeneas called his wife's name in the streets. "Creusa! Creusa!" Then she stood in front of him. She was a ghost, and she looked taller than in life.

"Why do you cry, my husband?" she said. "The gods do not let me come with you. You will travel for a long time. Then you will come to a land in the west, to a river called the Tiber. There you will have a kingdom and a new wife. Do not cry for me. I will never be the slave of a Greek woman. Goodbye. Love our son."

Three times Aeneas tried to put his arms around her. Three times his arms closed on air.

It was nearly morning when he came back to the temple. A crowd was waiting for him there. They wanted to go with him over the sea. The morning star rose over Mount Ida. Aeneas took his father on his shoulders again and walked towards the mountains.

Menelaus found Helen and took her home. Aeneas and his people went west over the sea, as the ghost said. The Romans later said that they came from his family. For ten years, the walls kept the Greeks out. In one night, a trick let them in.

Three thousand years later, we still say "a Trojan horse". It means a danger that hides inside something that looks like a gift. A dangerous computer program that looks normal is called a Trojan horse, too.