Some friend’s and I are watching the “Holy Grail” and it never quite occured to me, but is the “Trojan Horse Story” true?
The original Trojan Horse story is, of course, given in the Ilias epic by Homer, Greece’s great poet, and was written in the 8[sup]th[/sup] century BC. The Ilias deals with the Trojan war in which the Greeks, after ten years of successless seige, finally conquered the city thanks to that trick with the horse. Whereas the war itself certainly happened in real history, the story with the horse is not true, as well as the story about Helena, kidnapped by the Trojan prince Paris, which Homer gives as the casus belli that made the Greeks declare war on the Trojans. Historic basis, but the horse is not for real.
I hope I’m not the only one who’s wondering right now what this has to do with the Holy Grail, which is part of Christian mythology and doesn’t come into play until well over a millenium after the Trojan Horse. The only thing I can think of that relates the two is a Monty Python film about the Holy Grail, but since in that case, the structure in question is neither Trojan nor a horse, the fact that you referred to a “Trojan Horse” would have me believe that you’re talking about something else. So my question is, huh?
Also, if you want to find out more about Homer’s epic tale of the Trojan War, you’ll have more luck searching for “Iliad” than “Ilias”.
A minor nitpick. The Illiad takes place only over a few weeks during the 10th year of the war. It ends with the burial of Hector well before Troy fell. Pausanias wrote “Anyone who doesn’t think the Trojans were utterly stupid will have realized that the horse was really an engineer’s device for breaking down the walls.” Schnitte, you seem to have some thoughts on this. Do you think the city of Priam was Troy VI, the magnificent city that appears to have suffered an earthquake, or was it Troy VIIa, the city of shanties that appears to have been under siege before its destruction.
Achernar, I think the OP is saying that the scene in the Monty Python movie, which is obviously based on the Trojan Horse story in the Iliad, reminded him/her of the original, which in turn made his/her thoughts to whether or not it was a true story.
I hope I’m not the only one wondering what Arthurian Romance has to do with “Christian Mythology”. I’m not aware of any canonical Christian myths that deal with the cup Jesus used at the last supper.
Get a clue dudes. The Illiad did not contain the story of the “Trojan Horse”. If you want to read about it, Virgil’s Aenid has a version of it.
I was under the impression it was Troy, New York. Maybe I should have paid attention in school.
Oh, and I believe the Trojan Horse story first appeared in The Odyssey, which is the sequel to the Illiad.