76- Posthomerica Part VI: Horsing Around

It's finally time! As the Trojans are chased into the city, some bright spark (obviously it's Odysseus) suggests that we build a farmyard animal out of wood and push it in front of the Trojan gates! Let's shove some warriors in it and pretend to leave, then the Trojans will surely drag it into the city. But don't worry, there's no way they're foolish enough to actually go for it... Surely?

Time period: 1192 BCE

Relevant individuals:

• Priam, King of Troy
• Hecabe, Queen of Troy

• Helen, Queen of Sparta

• Menelaus, King of Sparta

• Agamemnon, King of Mycenae

• Odysseus, King of Ithaca

• Sinon, Greek soldier

• Aeneas, Trojan prince

Sources for this episode:

• Brown, S. P., West, S. A., Diggle, S. P. and Griffin, A. S. (2009), Social evolution in micro-organisms and a Trojan horse approach to medical intervention strategies. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 364: 3157-3168.
• Desmedt, Y. (2025), Trojan Horses, Computer Viruses, and Worms. Chapter in: Encyclopedia of Cryptography, Security and Privacy (p. 2649-2651).
• Quintus Smyrnaeus (1934), The Fall of Troy. Translated by A. S. Way. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press and William Heinemann Ltd.

• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Testudo formation (online) (Accessed 24/06/2025).

Credit for the lightning noise: https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/heavy-thunder-sound-effect-no-copyright-338980/ (free for use under the Pixabay Content Licence, https://pixabay.com/service/license-summary/).