Troy
placeThe legendary city in Asia Minor besieged by the Greeks for ten years in the Trojan War. Troy's fall — achieved through the deception of the wooden horse — is one of myth's defining moments.
The Myth
Troy was a wealthy, well-fortified city near the entrance to the Dardanelles in what is now northwestern Turkey. Its walls, said to have been built by Poseidon and Apollo, were considered impregnable. Under King Priam, Troy was one of the greatest cities of the ancient world.
The Trojan War began when Paris, a Trojan prince, eloped with Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world and wife of King Menelaus of Sparta. The Greeks assembled the greatest military expedition the world had seen — over a thousand ships — and laid siege to Troy.
For ten years, the war raged without decisive victory for either side. The siege was finally broken by Odysseus's stratagem of the Trojan Horse: a hollow wooden horse left as a supposed offering, filled with Greek soldiers. The Trojans brought it inside their walls, and that night the Greeks emerged, opened the gates, and destroyed the city. Troy's fall became a symbol of the devastation of war.
Symbols
Fun Fact
In computing, a "Trojan horse" or "Trojan" is malware disguised as legitimate software — named after the deception that ended the war.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth: