laocoön warned the trojans that the wooden horse was a trick.
laocoön warned the trojans that the wooden horse was a trick.
who warned the trojans that the wooden horse was a trick?
laocoön
in the aeneid, he pretended to have deserted the greeks and, as a trojan captive, told the trojans that the giant wooden horse the greeks had left behind was intended as a gift to the gods to ensure their safe voyage home. he told them that the horse was made so big that the trojans would not be able to move it into their city, because if they did they would be invincible to later achaean invasion. his story convinced the trojans because it included the former details as well as an explanation that he was left behind to die by the doing of odysseus, who was his enemy. the trojans brought the trojan horse into their city against the advice of cassandra (given the gift of prophecy by apollo, but condemned to never be believed for not returning his love) and laocoön (because two serpents came out of the water and strangled him and his sons, which the trojans saw as a punishment for attacking the horse with a spear). inside the giant wooden horse were greek soldiers, who, as night fell, disembarked from the horse and opened the city gates, thus sealing the fate of troy. he was also an achaean spy who told the greeks when the soldiers in the horse had begun their fight.
sinon
according to quintus smyrnaeus, odysseus thought of building a great wooden horse (the horse being the emblem of troy), hiding an elite force inside, and fooling the trojans into wheeling the horse into the city as a trophy. under the leadership of epeius, the greeks built the wooden horse in three days. odysseus's plan called for one man to remain outside the horse; he would act as though the greeks had abandoned him, leaving the horse as a gift for the trojans. an inscription was engraved on the horse reading: "for their return home, the greeks dedicate this offering to athena". then they burned their tents and left to tenedos by night. greek soldier sinon was "abandoned", and was to signal to the greeks by lighting a beacon. in virgil's poem, sinon, the only volunteer for the role, successfully convinces the trojans that he has been left behind and that the greeks are gone. sinon tells the trojans that the horse is an offering to the goddess athena, meant to atone for the previous desecration of her temple at troy by the greeks, and ensure a safe journey home for the greek fleet. sinon tells the trojans that the horse was built to be too large for them to take it into their city and gain the favor of athena for themselves.
trojan horse