After spending years besieging the city of Troy, the Greek armies suddenly decamp, leaving behind only an enormous wooden sculpture of a horse.
Greek kings leading a mighty host have for ten years laid siege to the city of Troy (in what is now northwest Turkey), demanding the return of Helen, a kidnapped princess. Dido listened with shining eyes, as Trojan hero Aeneas told how the Trojans looked out and saw the Greeks had gone, leaving nothing but an enormous wooden horse — to be placed in the temple of Athene, as a prayer for their journey home.
Thetis snubs Eris, goddess of Discord, and sets off a series of events leading to the Trojan War.
The god Ares took the form of a bull and won a contest of strength against a majestic beast belonging to Paris, son of the King of Troy. The mortal’s grace in defeat impressed Zeus, but Paris (and many others) came to regret his new-found reputation on Olympus for sporting behaviour.
Paris, prince of Troy, takes the not unwilling Queen of Sparta back home with him, and sparks ten years of diplomatic tension and ten of war.
The Siege of Troy is the heart of two of the greatest works of classical literature, Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid. The details, especially the squabbles, sulks and strategems of the gods, are pure myth of course, but the strife between the Greeks of Achaia and the city of Troy may be rooted in fact; if so, a date around 1200-1180 BC is possible — just after the Exodus, in fact.