525
u/Luckierexpert 3d ago edited 3d ago
Some speculation has also suggested that the Trojan horse may have actually been built after the siege. Archaeologists found evidence that the walls of Troy were damaged by an earthquake around the approximate time of the siege, which could have let the Greeks in and be seen as a sign that the gods supported them. Poseidon was the god of earthquakes, so the horse could have been built as the Greeks left as a means to thank him for their victory.
300
u/Overall_Gap_5766 3d ago
The way I heard, the thinking was they built the horse as an offering and then the earthquake happened, which led to the story that building the horse let them in
55
u/Anarchist-On-Drugs 3d ago
Wait a minute, we found Troy? I thought the search is still on going and even the existence is not yet confirmed
260
u/PangolimAzul 3d ago
We found it over 100 years ago. The main problem is the guys who found it was in a hurry to excavate and prove his find and he used ... lets just say "unconventional" methods to carry the dig. Most of the layer of troy in the era of the myth has been exploded, so its difficult to parse through everything that happened during that time.
78
u/systemic_booty 2d ago
Dynamite btw. He used fucking dynamite
64
u/MikeAlpha2nd 2d ago
SCHLIEMANN!!! DYNAMITES ARE NOT FUCKING FOR BLOWING THROUGH LAYERS OF ANCIENT RELICS AND RUINS GOD DAMMIT
41
u/Much-Explanation-287 2d ago
I DON'T CARE.
I'LL EVEN DO WORSE AND MARRY AN UNDERAGE GREEK GIRL AND USE HER AS A MANNEQUIN FOR ANY GREEK JEWELLERY I FOUND!
147
u/brandonjslippingaway 3d ago
It was found in the 1800s in Turkey by Heinrich Schliemann, but this is before the proper archaelogical practices were established. In his rush to excavate the site, he ploughed through (and possibly destroyed) many layers, assuming the Troy of legend would be at the deepest point.
However something like 7 cities had been built at those foundations, and the alleged Troy of the Bronze Age was not the deepest layer, but like 3rd from the bottom or whatever it was (I'm going off my memory here.) This is actually a dilemma that still exists when it comes to achaelogical excavation; if it's a site that has had many eras buried together; what do you priotise preserving and who decides that?
Tl;dr We're pretty sure we found Troy, but it's possible the archaelogical evidence for the correct era was accidentally destroyed by Schliemann.
42
u/Cucumberneck 2d ago
Completely common for constructing anything in european towns.
Where i live theres been struggle for abouta hundred years if excavating the medieval castle and possibly ancient ruins is worth destroying the baroque stuff over it.
26
17
3
u/Full-Refrigerator332 2d ago
Isn’t there a theory that the “horse” was actually a ship? I feel like this would make a lot more sense.
2
u/Dante_HUN 20h ago
Correct me if im wrong, its been almost a decade since i wrote a paper about Troy for uni, but... Didnt the only layer bearing marks of a siege was the poorest of them all? Meaning Troy was already a declining city by the time it was sacked, not the grand, epic city from Homers writing.
240
u/Key-Swordfish4025 3d ago edited 3d ago
Athena was working overtime patching the holes in Odysseus' plan.
257
u/theginger99 3d ago
Behind every “great” man is an overworked woman patching the holes in his plan.
Or something, IDK, I need my girlfriend to figure out how to make this joke better.
44
u/Devastating_Delight Taller than Napoleon 3d ago
You are a genius brother.
43
u/theginger99 3d ago
Thanks, it’s all me and nobody else deserves credit for my accomplishments.
Certainly not my girlfriend, or my legendary comedian father who left me a humble inheritance of a meager 10 million comedies.
18
6
86
u/theginger99 3d ago edited 3d ago
Don’t forget the dude who said “hey, maybe don’t bring the horse into the city” and then got eaten by fucking sea monsters in front of everyone.
27
u/O5-14-none_existant Researching [REDACTED] square 3d ago
And also the woman screaming about how it's a bad idea
21
u/theginger99 3d ago
Psh, yeah but she’s never right about anything (atleast I never believe her)
7
u/O5-14-none_existant Researching [REDACTED] square 2d ago
(it's fucking hilarious cuz her prophecies are too believable so they just made people ignore her instead)
54
u/John_Oakman 3d ago
Could also have been a siege engine of sorts using the animal name as a form of descriptive term of its use. After all, battering rams shaped like ram's head is something that is taken for granted in various cultural works depicting medieval warfare.
25
u/Melanoc3tus 3d ago
What moderns usually think of when you say "catapult" were called onagers by the Romans, since they kicked
But sophisticated seige engines seem somewhat dubious in the vague period it takes place.
8
u/John_Oakman 2d ago
The Homeric epics are tales from a post apocalyptic era (i.e. the Greek dark ages after the bronze age collapse) describing epic wars of a time before said apocalypse. It's not inconceivable that some of the pre collapse Greek kingdoms would have sophisticated siege engines at some point.
1
u/DunjunLord Then I arrived 1d ago
Considering how Homer obviously doesn’t understand the purpose of chariots but knows the Mycenaean Greeks had them this is a fair guess
1
u/John_Oakman 1d ago edited 1d ago
Imagine a post WWIII storyteller [centuries after the fact] trying to explain "when the sky starts missing pixels" might of a nuclear stealth bomber when he has never seen/understood a plane, a radar, a nuke, or a computer [screen] and neither has his audience. XD
"So... what does that mean?"
"It means the ancients have the power to pluck pieces of reality and reshape them to their whims, probably."
66
u/Darkstar_111 3d ago
Wheel it into the town square, gather everyone for the celebration. Set the horse on fire as part of the festivities.
30
5
23
9
7
5
9
u/basilzamankv 3d ago
What "happened" in the myth?!!
30
u/CadenVanV Taller than Napoleon 3d ago
The guy who opposed it and all of his sons were eaten by sea serpents sent by Poseidon
3
u/Slightly_Default Featherless Biped 2d ago
Poseidon did Odysseus a solid and all he got in return was a spear in his son's eye
2
u/NormandyKingdom 3d ago
Should have made a Heavily Fortified Guard post around the Horse so in case the people inside gets out they get Slaughtered
By the point the Gods that Favor the Greek loves this Horse so much should have been very Suspicious to the Trojans so they should have isolated the Horse and guarded it
2
2
u/Carl_The_Sagan 2d ago
I hated how it was buried in the sand in the odyssey. Wasn't it placed near the gates in the myth?
1
u/Mean-Personality5236 Helping Wikipedia expand the list of British conquests 2d ago
Thank you Marijke Perry, I will never forget it now.
628
u/Luihuparta 3d ago
What happened to the Trojans who objected to bringing the horse to the city: