What was the Trojan Horse?

Imagine being stuck outside a giant stone wall for ten whole years! That’s exactly what happened to the ancient Greek soldiers trying to get into the city of Troy. They tried everything, but the walls were just too strong and too tall! Just when it seemed like they would never win, a very clever hero named Odysseus came up with the sneakiest plan in history. Instead of fighting, the Greeks built a massive, hollow wooden horse and left it right outside the city gates! The Trojans thought it was a victory trophy and wheeled it inside to celebrate. But wait—there was a secret! Hidden deep inside the horse's belly were Greek soldiers waiting for the sun to go down. In the middle of the night, they crept out, opened the gates, and changed history forever! Join Mira and Finn as they explore how one giant wooden toy became the ultimate secret weapon. Was it a real horse? How did they stay quiet inside? Get ready to find out in this epic tale of tricks, traps, and ancient legends!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to History's Not Boring by Kidopoly.com. I'm Mira. And I'm Finn. Mira, why do you have a bucket of wooden blocks on the table?

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Because today we are talking about the ultimate building project and the sneakiest trick in the history of the world. It's the perfect time to talk about it, because this week is actually International Sneaky Tricks Week.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

International Sneaky Tricks Week? Is that a real thing? Are we talking about whoopee cushions and fake spiders?

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Way bigger than that, Finn. Imagine a trick so big it ended a war that lasted ten whole years. We're travelling back to 1200 BCE, to the ancient city of Troy.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Ten years? I've only been alive for seven. That's longer than I've been able to walk or talk. Why were they fighting for that long?

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Well, the legend says it all started when a prince of Troy named Paris took a queen named Helen away from her husband, King Menelaus of Sparta. The Greeks were so mad they launched 1,186 ships to get her back.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Over a thousand ships? That would fill up the whole ocean. Did they just sail over and knock on the front door?

SPEAKER_01 1:18

They tried, but Troy was a fortress. It had walls that were 30 feet high and 16 feet thick. Thin, 16 feet wide is the length of a whole large SUV. You couldn't just kick those walls down.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

16 feet thick? That's like a wall made of two cars parked side by side. How did anyone even get inside?

SPEAKER_01 1:41

That's the thing. For 3,650 days, they couldn't. The Greeks were stuck outside on the beach, and the Trojans were safe inside their giant stone box.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Wait. If the Greeks were on the beach for 10 years, what did they eat? Did they just have a 10-year-long barbecue?

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Sort of. They had to raid nearby towns for food. There were about 100,000 Greek soldiers living in tents. Can you imagine the smell of 100,000 people living on a beach for a decade?

SPEAKER_00 2:16

Yuck! That's like a stadium full of people with no showers. I bet they were really grumpy and ready to go home.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

Exactly! Even their best hero, Achilles, couldn't break the city. But then, a king named Odysseus came up with a plan. He was known as Odysseus the Cunning because he was the smartest guy in the army.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

What was the cunning plan? Did he build a giant ladder or a giant slingshot?

SPEAKER_01 2:45

No. He decided to build a giant wooden horse. But it wasn't just a statue, it was hollow. Odysseus told the Greeks to build it out of fur wood planks taken from their own ships.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

They chopped up their ships to make a horse. That sounds risky. How big was this thing?

SPEAKER_01 3:06

It was massive. Estimates say it was nearly 30 feet tall. That's almost as tall as two giraffes standing on top of each other. It had to be big enough to hide 30 of their bravest soldiers inside its belly.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

30 people inside a wooden horse? What if someone had to sneeze? Or what if someone had, you know, gas?

SPEAKER_01 3:31

That would be a disaster. Odysseus himself was in there, along with Menelaus. They had to be absolutely silent. If they made one sound, the Trojans would hear them clanking around in their bronze armor.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

So they just left a giant horse on the beach and hoped the Trojans would take it. Why would they do that?

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Because the Greeks did something even crazier. They packed up their tents, burned their remaining ships, and sailed away. Or they made it look like they sailed away.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Where did they go? They couldn't just disappear with a thousand ships.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

They hid. They sailed just a few miles away to the island of Tenados and hid behind the cliffs where the Trojans couldn't see them. They left only one man behind, a soldier named Sinon.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

One guy against a whole city. That's brave. What was his job? To tell the biggest lie in history.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

Yes! When the Trojans woke up the next morning, the beach was empty. No tents, no Greek army, no ships, just this giant wooden horse. They found Sinon hiding in the bushes, looking terrified.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

What did he tell them? Hey guys, my friends forgot me, but they left you this cool present. Pretty much.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

He told King Priam of Troy that the Greeks had given up. He said the horse was a gift to the goddess Athena to make sure they had a safe trip home. He even said the horse was made so big so the Trojans couldn't fit it through their gates.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

If you tell someone they can't have something, they want it even more.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

Exactly! But not everyone was fooled. A priest named Laocaon looked at the horse and said, I fear the Greeks, even when bringing gifts. He even threw a spear at the horse's side, and it made a hollow thump.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

No way! Did the soldiers inside scream? I would have screamed if a spear almost poked me.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

They stayed as still as statues. They didn't make a peep. And then something weird happened. Two giant sea serpents came out of the water and attacked the priest. The Trojans thought the gods were punishing him for disrespecting the horse.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Sea serpents? History is wild, Mira. So after that, the Trojans were like, okay, definitely bring the giant horse inside.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Yep! They were so convinced it was a trophy that they actually tore down part of their own wall just to fit the horse through. Can you believe it?

SPEAKER_00 6:18

They broke their own invincible defence. They broke their own wall. That's like taking the front door off your house and inviting a giant monster in.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

It took hundreds of men and giant rollers to move that horse. It weighed tons! They wheeled it right into the centre of the city and started a massive party. They had been at war for ten years, so they were celebrating like crazy.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

They thought they had finally won. How long did the soldiers have to wait inside the horse? Were they in there all day while people were dancing around them?

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Yes. Imagine being crammed into a dark wooden belly for over twelve hours while you hear the people you're fighting singing and cheering outside. It must have been boiling hot and super cramped.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

I would be so nervous. What happened when the sun went down and the party ended?

SPEAKER_01 7:12

When the city was finally quiet and everyone was asleep from the big celebration, Sinon crawled to the walls and lit a signal fire. That was the go signal for the Greek fleet hiding at Tenidos.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

And what about the guys in the horse? Was there a secret trapdoor?

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Exactly! A secret latch opened in the horse's stomach. Odysseus and his thirty men climbed down a long rope. They snuck past the sleeping guards and opened the main gates of Troy from the inside.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

The gates were open, and the rest of the army was already sailing back.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Yes! The Greek ships landed, and thousands of soldiers poured into the city. Because the Trojans were so surprised, and the Greeks were already inside the walls, the city of Troy fell in just one night after ten years of trying.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

Wow, that is the sneakiest trick ever. But Mira, did this really happen? It sounds like a movie!

SPEAKER_01 8:10

Well, for a long time, people thought Troy was just a legend. But in 1870, an archaeologist named Heinrich Schliemann found the actual ruins of Troy in modern-day Turkey. He found nine different cities built on top of each other.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

The one from the story is called Troy 7A. Nine cities? That's a lot of rebuilding. Did they find the horse?

SPEAKER_01 8:38

No, wood doesn't last 3,000 years. But we use the name Trojan Horse all the time today. Have you ever heard of a computer virus called a Trojan?

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Yeah. Does it turn your computer into a horse?

SPEAKER_01 8:54

I wish. No. It's a program that looks like something fun, like a game. But once you bring it inside your computer, it lets hackers in, just like the soldiers in the wooden horse.

SPEAKER_00 9:07

Whoa, so a 3,000-year-old trick is still being used by tech hackers today? That is mind-blowing.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

It really is! Also, did you know that the story of the horse isn't even in the most famous book about the war, the Iliad? It's actually told in a different book called The Odyssey.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Wait, how many soldiers were in there again? Some people say 30, but I heard it might have been more.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

Some ancient writers claim there were 50 or even 100 soldiers, but 30 is the most common number. Imagine 30 grown men in bronze armour trying not to sneeze in a wooden box. It's incredible they pulled it off. Alright, Finn, it's time to see if you were paying attention. Quiz time! I'm ready. Bring it on, Mira. First question. How many years did the Greeks and Trojans fight before the trick of the horse? Next one. How tall was the wooden horse, and what animal comparison did I use? Question three. Who was the clever Greek king who came up with the plan for the horse? Here's number four. What was the name of the soldier the Greeks left behind to tell the lie to the Trojans? Last question. The walls of Troy were 16 feet thick. That's the length of what modern day object? Great job! Let's see how many you got right. The first answer is ten long years. For question two, it was thirty feet tall, which is nearly as tall as two giraffes stacked up. Number three, it was Odysseus. Question four, the sneaky lyre was named Sinon. And for the last one, 16 feet is about the length of a large SUV.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

I can't believe they actually built that thing. I'm going to go see if I can build a Trojan horse out of my blocks. But maybe a smaller version.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

Just don't try to hide in it, Finn. You're a bit bigger than a block soldier.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

History is so cool, right? Totally. If you liked learning about the world's greatest trick, please give us a five-star review. It helps other kids find our show and learn cool stuff too.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

Yes, just scroll down on your podcast app and tap those five stars. It really helps us out. And for more amazing stories and games, check out our site, kidopoly.com.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

We've got so many fun things to explore over at kidopoly.com. And if you want to say hi or ask a question, send us an email at hello at kidopoly.com.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

See you next time on History's Not Born. Bye, everyone.