Fall of Troy
The final destruction of the city of Troy through the stratagem of the wooden horse after ten years of siege
The Meaning of Fall of Troy
The Fall of Troy was the climactic event of the Trojan War cycle, ending a ten-year siege that had consumed the lives of countless heroes on both sides. After the deaths of Achilles, Paris, and Ajax, the war had reached a stalemate. The Greek seer Calchas (or Odysseus himself, in some versions) devised the plan that would end it. The Greeks constructed an enormous wooden horse and concealed a picked force of warriors inside its hollow belly — among them Odysseus, Diomedes, Neoptolemus (Achilles's son), and Menelaus. The rest of the Greek army sailed away to the nearby island of Tenedos, feigning retreat. The Trojans, believing the war over, debated what to do with the horse. Cassandra, cursed to prophecy truly but never be believed, warned of destruction. The priest Laocoön hurled a spear at the horse and declared he feared Greeks bearing gifts. But Poseidon sent monstrous serpents from the sea to kill Laocoön and his sons, which the Trojans interpreted as divine punishment for sacrilege. They dragged the horse through their gates. That night, while Troy celebrated, the Greek warrior Sinon lit a signal fire. The warriors crept from the horse, opened the gates, and the Greek army poured in. What followed was a night of slaughter: Priam was killed at his own altar by Neoptolemus, Astyanax was thrown from the walls, and the women of Troy were enslaved. The city was burned to ash. The sack of Troy became the defining example of war's cruelty and the dangers of deception in Greek moral imagination.
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Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Sack of Troy
💭 conceptNarrative
The brutal destruction and plundering of Troy during the night following the wooden horse stratagem
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.
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.
Wooden Horse
💭 conceptdeception
The hollow wooden horse built by Epeius on Athena's design that concealed Greek warriors and ended the Trojan War.
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
Seven Against Thebes
💭 conceptNarrative
The doomed military expedition of seven champions against the city of Thebes in the generation before the Trojan War
Bellerophon and Chimera
💭 conceptNarrative
The hero's aerial battle against a fire-breathing monster while riding the winged horse Pegasus
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.
Iliad
💭 conceptLiterature
Homer's epic poem recounting the wrath of Achilles during the final year of the Trojan War
Return of Odysseus
💭 conceptNarrative
The hero's perilous ten-year journey home from Troy and his reclamation of his kingdom in Ithaca
Trojan War
💭 conceptThe ten-year war that defined Greek mythology
The Trojan War was the central event of Greek mythology — a ten-year siege of Troy by a Greek coalition, sparked by the abduction of Helen and ended by the stratagem of the Wooden Horse.
Battle of Marathon
💭 conceptwar, divine intervention
The 490 BC battle where Athenian hoplites defeated Persia, believed by the Greeks to have been won with the aid of Pan, Theseus, and the hero Echetlus.