Trojan Horse - Factual Explanations

Factual Explanations

According to Homer, Troy stood overlooking the Hellespont – a channel of water that separates Asia Minor and Europe. In the 1870s, Heinrich Schliemann set out to find it. Following Homer's description, he started to dig at Hisarlik in Turkey and uncovered the ruins of several cities, built one on top of the other. Several of the cities had been destroyed violently, but it was not clear which, if any, was Homer's Troy. In his enthusiasm for digging down into the lowest (and therefore oldest) layer of settlement (Troy of 2500 B.C.) Schliemann actually destroyed a large portion of the preceding layers, including the Troy of the Homeric Iliad.

Pausanias, who lived in the 2nd century AD, wrote in his book Description of Greece "That the work of Epeius was a contrivance to make a breach in the Trojan wall is known to everybody who does not attribute utter silliness to the Phrygians" where, by Phrygians, he means the Trojans.

There has been modern speculation that the Trojan Horse may have been a battering ram resembling, to some extent, a horse, and that the description of the use of this device was then transformed into a myth by later oral historians who were not present at the battle and were unaware of that meaning of the name. Assyrians at the time used siege machines with animal names; it is possible that the Trojan Horse was such.

It has also been suggested that the Trojan Horse actually represents an earthquake that occurred between the wars that could have weakened Troy's walls and left them open for attack. The deity Poseidon had a triple function as a god of the sea, of horses, and of earthquakes. Structural damage on Troy VI – its location being the same as that represented in Homer's Iliad and the artifacts found there suggesting it was a place of great trade and power – shows signs that there was indeed an earthquake. Generally, though, Troy VIIa is believed to be Homer's Troy (see below).

Some authors have suggested that the gift was not a horse with warriors hiding inside, but a boat carrying a peace envoy, and it has also been noted that the terms used to put men in the horse are those used when describing the embarkation of men on a ship.