Doloneia
The night raid in Iliad Book 10 where Odysseus and Diomedes infiltrate the Trojan camp and slaughter the Thracian king Rhesus.
The Meaning of Doloneia
They crawled through no-man's land at midnight, captured a Trojan spy, extracted information, then murdered a sleeping king and stole his horses. The Doloneia is the Iliad's spy thriller. Hector sent Dolon to scout the Greek camp. Odysseus and Diomedes intercepted him. Dolon begged for his life and revealed everything — including that the newly-arrived Thracian king Rhesus had divine white horses. They killed Dolon anyway, then infiltrated the Thracian camp, killed Rhesus and twelve of his men in their sleep, and stole the horses. A prophecy said Troy could never fall if Rhesus's horses ate Trojan grass and drank Trojan water — Odysseus ensured they never did. Many scholars believe Book 10 was a later addition.
Symbols
Explore Further
Trojan Horse
💭 conceptThe stratagem that ended the Trojan War
The hollow wooden horse used by the Greeks to infiltrate and destroy Troy. Devised by Odysseus, it is history's most famous act of deception.
Trojan Horse
💭 conceptMilitary deception and computing
The wooden horse used by the Greeks to infiltrate Troy, now a universal metaphor for any deceptive strategy that conceals a hidden threat within an apparent gift
Fall of Troy
💭 conceptNarrative
The final destruction of the city of Troy through the stratagem of the wooden horse after ten years of siege
Rhesus
🗡 herofate
Thracian king who brought white horses to Troy and was killed in his sleep by Odysseus and Diomedes on his first night.
Dolon
🗡 heroNone recorded
Trojan spy captured and killed during a night raid by Odysseus and Diomedes
Wooden Horse
💭 conceptdeception
The hollow wooden horse built by Epeius on Athena's design that concealed Greek warriors and ended the Trojan War.
The Trojan War
💭 conceptWar, fate, heroism
A ten-year siege of Troy by a coalition of Greek kings, sparked by the abduction of Helen and shaped by the rivalries of the gods.
Seven Against Thebes
💭 conceptNarrative
The doomed military expedition of seven champions against the city of Thebes in the generation before the Trojan War
Krypteia
💭 conceptSparta, terror
The Spartan secret police force composed of elite young warriors who were sent into the countryside to hunt and kill helots, combining military training with state terror.
Seven Against Thebes
💭 conceptwar, curse
The doomed military expedition of seven champions against the seven gates of Thebes, organised by Polynices to reclaim the throne from his brother Eteocles.
Bellerophon and Chimera
💭 conceptNarrative
The hero's aerial battle against a fire-breathing monster while riding the winged horse Pegasus
Sack of Troy
💭 conceptNarrative
The brutal destruction and plundering of Troy during the night following the wooden horse stratagem