How big was the Trojan horse. Trojan Horse: was he really

03.08.2020

Who today does not know the famous legend of Troy and the Trojan horse? This myth is hard to believe, but the authenticity of the existence of Troy was confirmed by the excavations of the famous German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann back in the century before last. Modern archaeological research confirms the historicity of the tragic events that took place in the XII century BC. More and more details of the Trojan War and the circumstances connected with it are being revealed...

Today it is known that a major military clash between the union of the Achaean states and the city of Troy (Ilion), located on the Aegean Sea, occurred between 1190 and 1180 (according to other sources, around 1240 BC) BC.

The first sources telling about this both legendary and terrible event were Homer's poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey". Later, the Trojan War was the subject of Virgil's Aeneid and other works in which history was also intertwined with fiction.

According to these works, the reason for the war was the abduction by Paris, the son of the Trojan king Priam, of the beautiful Helen, the wife of King Menelaus of Sparta. At the call of Menelaus, the suitors bound by an oath, famous Greek heroes, came to his aid. According to the Iliad, the army of the Greeks, led by the Mycenaean king Agamemnon, the brother of Menelaus, set off to free the stolen.

An attempt to negotiate the return of Helen failed, and then the Greeks began an exhausting siege of the city. The gods also took part in the war: Athena and Hera - on the side of the Greeks, Aphrodite, Artemis, Apollo and Ares - on the side of the Trojans. There were ten times fewer Trojans, but Troy remained impregnable.

The only source for us can only be Homer's poem "The Iliad", but the author, as noted by the Greek historian Thucydides, exaggerated the significance of the war and embellished it, and therefore the poet's information must be treated very carefully. However, we are primarily interested in the fighting and methods of warfare in that period, about which Homer tells in some detail.

So, the city of Troy was located a few kilometers from the coast of the Hellespont (Dardanelles). Trade routes used by the Greek tribes passed through Troy. Apparently, the Trojans interfered with the trade of the Greeks, which forced the Greek tribes to unite and start a war with Troy, which was supported by numerous allies, because of which the war dragged on for many years.

Troy, on the site of which today is the Turkish town of Hisarlik, was surrounded by a high stone wall with battlements. The Achaeans did not dare to storm the city and did not block it, so the fighting took place on a flat field between the city and the besiegers' camp, which was located on the banks of the Hellespont. The Trojans sometimes broke into the enemy camp, trying to set fire to the Greek ships that were pulled ashore.

Listing in detail the ships of the Achaeans, Homer counted 1186 ships, on which a hundred thousandth army was transported. Undoubtedly, the number of ships and warriors is exaggerated. In addition, it must be borne in mind that these ships were simply large boats, for they were easily pulled ashore and launched rather quickly into the water. Such a ship could not lift 100 people.

Most likely, the Achaeans had several thousand warriors. They were headed by Agamemnon, the king of the “multi-golden Mycenae”. And at the head of the warriors of each tribe stood its leader.

Homer calls the Achaeans “spear-boring”, so there is no doubt that the main weapon of the Greek warriors was a spear with a copper tip. The warrior had a copper sword and good defensive weapons: leggings, a shell on his chest, a helmet with a horse's mane and a large shield bound with copper. Tribal leaders fought on war chariots or dismounted.

The warriors of the lower hierarchy were worse armed: they had spears, slings, "double-edged axes", axes, bows and arrows, shields and were a support for their leaders, who themselves entered into single combat with the best warriors of Troy. From the descriptions of Homer, one can imagine the environment in which the martial arts took place.

It happened like this.

Opponents were located close to each other. The war chariots lined up; the warriors took off their armor and folded it next to the chariots, then sat down on the ground and watched the single combat of their leaders. Martial artists first threw spears, then fought with copper swords, which soon fell into disrepair.

Having lost the sword, the fighter took refuge in the ranks of his tribe, or he was given a new weapon to continue the fight. The victor removed the armor from the slain and took away his weapons.

For battle, chariots and infantry were placed in a certain order. The war chariots lined up in front of the infantry in a line while maintaining alignment, “so that no one, relying on his art and strength, fights alone against the Trojans in front of the rest, so that he doesn’t rule back.”

Behind the war chariots, hiding behind "bulging" shields, foot soldiers armed with spears with copper tips were built. The infantry was built in several ranks, which Homer calls "dense phalanxes." The leaders lined up the infantry, driving the cowardly warriors into the middle, "so that even those who do not want to fight would have to fight."

The war chariots were the first to enter the battle, then "continuously, one after another, the phalanxes of the Achaeans moved into battle against the Trojans", "they marched in silence, fearing their leaders." The infantry delivered the first blows with spears, and then cut with swords. Infantry fought against war chariots with spears. Archers also participated in the battle, but the arrow was not considered a reliable tool even in the hands of an excellent archer.

It is not surprising that under such conditions, the outcome of the struggle was decided by physical strength and the art of wielding weapons, which often failed: the copper tips of the spears bent, and the swords broke. The maneuver on the battlefield has not yet been used, but the beginnings of organizing the interaction of war chariots and foot soldiers have already appeared.

This fight continued until nightfall. If an agreement was reached at night, then the corpses were burned. If there was no agreement, the opponents posted guards, organizing the protection of the troops in the field and defensive structures (the fortress wall and camp fortifications - a moat, pointed stakes and a wall with towers).

The guard, which usually consisted of several detachments, was stationed behind the moat. At night, reconnaissance was sent to the camp of the enemy in order to capture prisoners and clarify the intentions of the enemy, meetings of tribal leaders were held, at which the issue of further actions was decided. In the morning the battle resumed.

This is how the endless battles between the Achaeans and the Trojans proceeded. According to Homer, the main events began to unfold only in the tenth (!) year of the war.

Once the Trojans, having achieved success in a night sortie, threw the enemy back to his fortified camp, surrounded by a moat. Having crossed the moat, the Trojans began to storm the wall with towers, but were soon driven back.

Later, they nevertheless managed to smash the gates with stones and break into the Achaean camp. A bloody battle ensued for the ships. Homer explains this success of the Trojans by the fact that the best warrior of the besiegers, the invincible Achilles, who quarreled with Agamemnon, did not participate in the battle.

Seeing that the Achaeans were retreating, Achilles' friend Patroclus persuaded Achilles to allow him to join the battle and give him his armor. Encouraged by Patroclus, the Achaeans rallied, as a result of which the Trojans met fresh enemy forces near the ships. It was a dense formation of closed shields "a peak near a peak, a shield at the shield, going under the next one." The warriors lined up in several ranks and managed to repel the attack of the Trojans, and with a counterattack - “strikes of sharp swords and a peak of two-pointed ones” - threw them back.

In the end, the attack was repulsed. However, Patroclus himself died at the hands of Hector, son of Priam, king of Troy. So the armor of Achilles went to the enemy. Later, Hephaestus forged new armor and weapons for Achilles, after which Achilles, furious at the death of his friend, again entered the battle.

Later, he killed Hector in a duel, tied his body to a chariot and rushed to his camp. The Trojan king Priam came to Achilles with rich gifts, begged him to return the body of his son and buried him with dignity.

This concludes Homer's Iliad.

According to later myths, later the Amazons led by Penfisilea and the king of the Ethiopians Memnon came to the aid of the Trojans. However, they soon died at the hands of Achilles. And soon Achilles himself died from the arrows of Paris directed by Apollo. One arrow hit the only vulnerable spot - the heel of Achilles, the other - in the chest. His armor and weapons went to Odysseus, recognized as the bravest of the Achaeans.

After the death of Achilles, the Greeks were predicted that without the bow and arrows of Hercules, who were with Philoctetes, and Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, they would not be able to take Troy. An embassy was sent for these heroes, and they hurried to the aid of their compatriots. Philoctetes, with the arrow of Hercules, mortally wounded the Trojan prince Paris. Odysseus and Diomedes killed the Thracian king Res, who was hurrying to help the Trojans, and took away his magic horses, which, according to a prediction, once in the city, would make it impregnable.

And then the cunning Odysseus came up with an extraordinary military trick ...

For a long time, secretly from others, he talked with a certain Epeus, the best carpenter in the Achaean camp. By evening, all the Achaean leaders gathered in the tent of Agamemnon for a military council, where Odysseus outlined his adventurous plan, according to which it was necessary to build a huge wooden horse. The most skillful and courageous warriors should fit in his womb. All the rest of the army must board the ships, move away from the Trojan coast and hide behind the island of Tendos.

As soon as the Trojans see that the Achaeans have abandoned the coast, they will think that the siege of Troy has been lifted. The Trojans will surely drag the wooden horse to Troy. At night, the Achaean ships will return, and the soldiers who have taken refuge in a wooden horse will come out of it and open the fortress gates. And then - the last assault on the hated city!

For three days the axes clanged in the carefully fenced-off part of the ship's parking lot, for three days the mysterious work was in full swing.

On the morning of the fourth day, the Trojans were surprised to find the Achaean camp empty. The sails of the Achaean ships melted in the haze of the sea, and on the coastal sand, where only yesterday the tents and tents of the enemy were full of tents, stood a huge wooden horse.

The jubilant Trojans left the city and wandered curiously along the deserted shore. They surrounded with surprise a huge wooden horse, towering over the bushes of coastal willows. Someone advised to throw the horse into the sea, someone to burn it, but many insisted on dragging it into the city and placing it on the main square of Troy as a memory of the bloody battle of the peoples.

In the midst of a dispute, the priest of Apollo, Laocoön, and his two sons approached the wooden horse. "Fear the Danes who bring gifts!" - he cried and, snatching a sharp spear from the hands of the Trojan warrior, threw it at the wooden belly of the horse. The thrusting spear trembled, and a barely audible brass ringing was heard from the horse's belly.

But no one listened to Laocoön. All the attention of the crowd was attracted by the appearance of young men leading a captive Achaean. He was brought to King Priam, who was surrounded by court nobility next to a wooden horse. The prisoner called himself Sinon and explained that he himself had fled from the Achaeans, who were supposed to sacrifice him to the gods - this was a condition for a safe return home.

Sinon convinced the Trojans that the horse was a gift to Athena, who could unleash her wrath on Troy if the Trojans destroyed the horse. And if you put it in the city in front of the temple of Athena, then Troy will become indestructible. At the same time, Sinon emphasized that this is why the Achaeans built the horse so huge that the Trojans could not drag it through the fortress gates...

As soon as Sinon said those words, a terrified scream was heard from the direction of the sea. Two huge snakes crawled out of the sea and entwined the priest Laocoon, as well as his two sons, with deadly rings of their smooth and sticky bodies. In an instant, the unfortunates gave up their spirit.

"Laokóon and his sons" - a sculptural group in Vatican Pius Clementine Museum , depicting a mortal struggle Laocoonand his sons with snakes.

Now, no one doubted that Sinon was telling the truth. And therefore it is necessary to quickly install this wooden horse next to the temple of Athena.

Having built a low platform on wheels, the Trojans mounted a wooden horse on it and took it to the city. In order for the horse to pass through the Skeian Gate, the Trojans had to dismantle part of the fortress wall. The horse was placed in a designated place.

While the Trojans, intoxicated with success, were celebrating their victory, at night the Achaean scouts quietly got off their horse and opened the gates. By that time, the Greek army, at the signal of Sinon, quietly returned back and now captured the city.

As a result, Troy was plundered and destroyed.

But why was the horse the cause of her death? This question has been asked since ancient times. Many ancient authors tried to find a reasonable explanation for the legend. Various assumptions were made: for example, that the Achaeans had a battle tower on wheels, made in the shape of a horse and upholstered in horse skins; or that the Greeks managed to get into the city through an underground passage, on the door of which a horse was painted; or that the horse was a sign by which the Achaeans in the dark distinguished each other from opponents ...

Almost all the heroes, both Achaeans and Trojans, perish under the walls of Troy. And of those who survive the war, many will die on the way home. Someone, like King Agamemnon, will find death at the hands of loved ones at home, someone will be expelled and spend his life wandering. In fact, this is the end of the heroic age. Under the walls of Troy there are no winners and no losers, the heroes are fading into the past, and the time for ordinary people is coming.

Around the same time, another important event took place in the Mediterranean: one of the great migrations of peoples began. From the north, the tribes of the Dorians, a barbarian people, moved to the Balkan Peninsula, which completely destroyed the ancient Mycenaean civilization.

Only after a few centuries will Greece be reborn and it will be possible to speak of Greek history. The destruction will be so great that the entire pre-Dorian history will become a myth, and many states will cease to exist.

The results of recent archaeological expeditions do not yet allow a convincing reconstruction of the scenario of the Trojan War. However, their results do not deny that behind the Trojan epic there is a story of Greek expansion against a major power that was located on the western coast of Asia Minor and prevented the Greeks from gaining power over this region. It remains to be hoped that the true history of the Trojan War will someday be written.

The story of the Trojan Horse, with the help of which thirty of Odysseus' fighters got inside Troy, speaks not only of the deceit of the attackers, but also of the naivety of the defenders. Meanwhile, about whether there was a Horse, historians argue to this day.

eyewitness testimony

The ancient Roman writer Virgil, who lived during the reign of Emperor Augustus, wrote the epic poem "Aeneid", which tells about the wanderings of Aeneas from Troy to Italy. A number of historians believe that "everything that the poet wrote" he found in reliable sources. Ultimately, his poetic testimony to the tragedy of Troy was included in world history, and the phrase "Trojan horse" became a household word. Not least, this happened because the military cunning of three dozen fighters crushed the fortress, which the entire army of King Menelaus could not take.

Before lifting the siege, the attackers informed the Trojans that the wooden “horse” they had built was a symbol of peace and an offering to Athena as a sign of atonement for sins. And as long as he stays, they won't attack. This was told to the Trojans by Sinon, the cousin of Odysseus, who allegedly went over to the side of the defenders.

wooden giant

Judging by the descriptions, the Trojan Horse was 7.6 meters high and about three meters wide. Built today, the model weighed about two tons and could accommodate a maximum of twenty men of average constitution, characteristic of those times. Forty people were needed to roll this structure over greased logs.

Most likely, a wooden road was built, since many experts doubt that the Trojan Horse had wheels. Historian David Rohl, citing proof of the canonical version, refers to the fact that an opening was made in the wall through which a Trojan Horse of the indicated dimensions could be dragged. There was an inscription on the horse: “an offering to Athena”, so that she would keep the Greek ships on her way home.

Believe or not believe?

Meanwhile, this Horse was brought to Troy not immediately after the Greek fleet disappeared into the distance. In order to carry out the preparatory work, it took time, at least a few days. If the fighters of Odysseus were actually hiding in this wooden structure, then they would have had a very hard time.

While the Greeks languished in the "belly" of the horse, his fate was decided in the city. Many residents believed that the offering should be burned. Among them was the soothsayer Cassandra, who, pointing to the horse, declared that wars were hidden there. The Trojan priest Laocoön threw a spear at the offering of the Greeks, urging them not to trust their enemies. “Fear the Danes, even those who bring gifts,” he shouted. Soon, as legend has it, he and his two sons were strangled by sea serpents.

Thus, serious passions boiled around this "Danaan gift", but nevertheless he was dragged into the city. This happened, according to some sources, on June 6, 1209 BC. On that fateful evening, numerous guards were posted in front of the "horse", but the feast that had begun intoxicated her too. Late at night, thirty fighters led by Odysseus got out of the "gift" and opened the gates of the city. That night Troy fell. Aeneas, one of the few who escaped, told the world about the deceit of the Greeks and the naivety of Troy.

Was there a horse?

The Roman traveler and scientist Pausanias, who lived in the 2nd century AD, wrote in the book “Description of Greece” that the Horse actually existed, only it was not a gift, but a ram that the Trojans recaptured from the Greeks during the assault and took away inside the city to he no longer destroyed the walls. Some Greeks hid in it, who were not noticed in the confusion.

There is also another version. At that time, rowing slaves in the hold of a ship were said to be as hard for them as in the belly of a horse. Perhaps it was one of the damaged ships abandoned by the Greeks - a bireme in which Odysseus' fighters hid. One of the Trojans brought the ship to the harbor to put it in order.
However, the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, a participant in the excavations of places where Troy could be located, doubts that there was a Greek siege at all. In any case, he did not manage to find a single Greek arrowhead or spearhead.

Other military tricks

Other tricks similar to the Trojan horse were also used to deceive the enemy. Homer's poem "The Odyssey" tells how the Greek wanderers fled from the Cyclops, who hid under the sheep. In other words, the enemy can be deceived by passing off his soldiers as his fighters. Dressing up in the uniform of the enemy in order to penetrate the camp of the enemy or, on the contrary, to flee from him, is one of the most common military tricks.

There are many such cases in history. For example, part of the Russian troops left Narva, besieged in 1704, dressed in the uniform of the Swedes who died during the assault. In 1812, the detachments of Denis Davydov quite often changed into the uniform of a motley Napoleonic regiment, and then, approaching the enemy, suddenly attacked him.

In the structure of the Abwehr there was a Brandenburg regiment, whose soldiers were saboteurs dressed in the uniform of Red Army fighters. We also had such divisions. For example, in the memoirs of the German Colonel-General Erhard Raus, a group of Soviet soldiers dressed in Wehrmacht uniforms inflicted serious losses on the Germans defending Belgorod in 1943.

The existence of Troy was confirmed by the excavations of the famous German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann (1822–1890) back in the century before last. These excavations fully confirm the events that took place at the end of the 13th - beginning of the 12th centuries BC, and even today they find more and more new details of the Trojan War and the circumstances associated with it.

According to today's historical point of view, the military conflict of the union of the Achaean states with the city of Troy (Ilion), which once stood on the shores of the Aegean Sea, occurred between 1190 and 1180 (according to other sources, around 1240 BC) BC.

Homer's poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey" became the first works telling about the Trojan War, and a little later the Trojan War was described in Virgil's "Aeneid" and other works, but when describing these events, history and fiction were always tightly intertwined, which does not allow to say with full certainty whether the real events developed in this way.

However, if we turn to the works described above, we can see that the reason for the war was the abduction by Paris, the son of the Trojan king Priam, of the beautiful Helen, the wife of the king of Sparta Menelaus. At the call of Menelaus, the suitors bound by an oath, famous Greek heroes, came to his aid.

The facts of the Iliad are exaggerated

The Iliad reports that the army of the Greeks, led by the Mycenaean king Agamemnon, the brother of Menelaus, set off to free the kidnapped Helen. Negotiations on the voluntary release of the kidnapped ended in nothing, and then the Greeks began a long siege of the city. The gods also took part in the war: Athena and Hera - on the side of the Greeks, Artemis, Aphrodite, Ares and Apollo - on the side of the Trojans. There were ten times fewer Trojans, but Troy remained impregnable.

Since the most detailed source telling about that war is Homer's poem "The Iliad", let's turn to it, although the Greek historian Thucydides said that in this work the significance of the war is greatly exaggerated, and many facts are distorted, therefore, the reliability of the events in the Iliad should be treated very carefully.

According to the Iliad, the city of Troy was located a few kilometers from the coast of the Hellespont (Dardanelles). Trade routes used by the Greek tribes passed through Troy. Most likely, the Trojans interfered with the trade of the Greeks, which forced the Greek tribes to unite and start a war with Troy, on the side of which there were numerous allies, because of which the war dragged on for many years. But the powerful defensive walls of Troy remained impregnable.

Seeing that the hostilities had reached a dead end, the cunning Odysseus came up with an extraordinary military trick ...

For a long time, in secret, Odysseus talked with Epeus, the most skilled carpenter in the Achaean camp, and by evening, having gathered all the leaders, he presented his insidious plan. According to the plan, it was necessary to build a large wooden horse, inside of which a dozen of the most daring and skillful warriors could fit. The rest of the army was to board the ships and move away from the Trojan coast, and then take refuge behind the island of Tendos.

As soon as the Trojans realize that the enemy has abandoned the coast, they will decide that the siege of the city is over and will want to drag the wooden horse into the city. Under the cover of night, the Achaean ships will return, and the soldiers who hid inside the horse will come out and open the fortress gates and then the city will fall.

It took the Achaean carpenters three days to put the idea into practice. On the fourth day, the Trojans discovered that the enemy's camp was empty, the sails of enemy ships were disappearing beyond the horizon, and on the coastal sand, where only yesterday the enemy's tents and tents were full of tents, there was a huge wooden horse.

Rejoiced, the Trojans immediately surrounded the wonderful horse and began to decide what to do with it. Some said that he should be drowned in the sea, others offered to burn him, but many wanted to drag him into the city and leave him on the main square of Troy as a symbol of the end of the bloody war.

Prophecy of the Priest Laocoön

The local priest from the temple of Apollo, Laocoön, with his two sons, cried out:

Be afraid of the Danes who bring gifts!

He snatched a spear from the hands of the nearest warrior, and threw it into the belly of a Trojan horse. However, no one listened to Laocoön, since all the attention of the crowd was already riveted on the young man who was leading the captive Achaean. Approaching King Priam, the captive was forced to name himself. He said that his name was Sinon and explained that he himself had fled from the Achaeans, who were supposed to sacrifice him to the gods - this was a condition for a safe return home.

The captive convinced the Trojan people that the horse was a dedication gift to Athena, who could unleash her wrath on Troy if the Trojans destroyed the horse. And if you put it in the city in front of the temple of Athena, then Troy will become indestructible. At the same time, Sinon emphasized that this is why the Achaeans built the horse so huge that the Trojans could not drag it through the fortress gates...

As soon as the captive told all of the above to the king, a cry full of horror was heard from the sea. Two huge snakes crawled out of the sea and entangled the priest Laocoon, as well as his two sons, with deadly rings of their smooth and wet bodies and dragged them into the depths of the sea. Seeing this, no one doubted that Sinon was telling the truth. So it is necessary to quickly install a wooden horse next to the temple of Athena.

Having dismantled part of the fortress gates, the Trojans dragged the horse into the city and began to celebrate. The warriors inside the Trojan horse waited until late at night and dug up the gates of the city. The Greek army, having received Sinon's signal, returned and captured the city with ease. As a result, Troy was plundered and destroyed.

Since Homer's Iliad is full of fiction and metaphors, today the Trojan horse is an allegory of some kind of military cunning used by the Achaeans when taking the city. Some historians believe that perhaps the Trojan horse was a tower on wheels, made in the shape of a horse and upholstered with horse skins.

Others suggest that the Greeks entered the city through an underground passage, on the doors of which a horse was depicted, and someone says that the horse was a sign by which the Achaeans distinguished each other from opponents in the dark ...

Trojan horse - a symbol of birth and death

It is possible that the Trojan horse carries a deeper meaning, because during the years of the war, most of the heroes, both Achaeans and Trojans, die under the walls of Troy. And those who survive the war die on the way home. Some, like King Agamemnon, will find death at the hands of their loved ones at home, others will be expelled and spend their lives wandering.

In fact, this is the end of the heroic age. Under the walls of Troy there are no winners and no losers, the heroes are fading into the past, and the time for ordinary people is coming.

Symbolically, the horse is also associated with birth and death. A horse made of spruce wood, carrying something in its womb, symbolizes the birth of a new one, and a Trojan horse is made just from spruce boards, and armed warriors are placed in its hollow belly. It turns out that the Trojan horse brings death to the defenders of the fortress, but at the same time means the birth of something new.

And indeed, at about the same time, another important event took place, one of the largest migrations of peoples. From the north, the tribes of the Dorians, a barbarian people, moved to the Balkan Peninsula, which completely eradicated the ancient Mycenaean civilization.

Only a few centuries later, Greece will be reborn, and only then it will be possible to talk about Greek history. The destruction will be so great that the entire pre-Dorian history will become a myth, and many states will cease to exist.

Recent archaeological expeditions do not yet allow us to fully restore the scenario of the Trojan War. However, their results do not exclude the possibility that behind the Trojan epic there is a story of Greek expansion against a major power located on the western coast of Asia Minor, which acts as an obstacle to the Greeks gaining power over this region.

It remains to be hoped that the true history of the Trojan War will still be written someday, and with it the history of the Trojan horse will be revealed.

Today, many people know the famous legend of Troy and the Trojan horse, and the Trojan horse itself has long become a household name and our ironic contemporaries even named a destructive computer virus after it...
Despite the fact that the authenticity of the existence of Troy was confirmed by the search and excavations of the famous German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890), it is difficult to believe in the myth of the Trojan horse (I myself, frankly, still cannot understand how the Trojans were caught for such a trick approx. site author).
But, nevertheless, this is already history, and the first sources that told about this legendary event were Homer's poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey". Later, the Trojan War was the subject of Virgil's Aeneid and other works in which history was also intertwined with fiction.
The only source for us can only be Homer's poem "The Iliad", but the author, as noted by the Greek historian Thucydides, exaggerated the significance of the war and embellished it, and therefore the poet's information must be treated very carefully.

Today it is reliably known that the great military battle of the union of the Achaean states with the city of Troy (Ilion), located on the coast of the Aegean Sea, took place between 1190 and 1180 BC (according to other sources, around 1240 BC).
The reason for this war was the abduction by Paris, the son of the Trojan king Priam, of the beautiful Helen, the wife of the king of Sparta Menelaus. In response to the call of Menelaus, famous Greek heroes came to his aid. According to the Iliad, an army of Greeks led by the Mycenaean king Agamemnon, the brother of Menelaus, set off to free Helen abducted by Paris.
The gods also took part in this war: Athena and Hera - on the side of the Greeks, Aphrodite, Artemis and Apollo, Ares - on the side of the Trojans.
An attempt to return Helen through negotiations failed, and then the Greeks began an exhausting siege of the city. Although there were ten times fewer Trojans, Troy remained impregnable...
The city of Troy, on the site of which the Turkish town of Hisarlik is located today, was located a few kilometers from the coast of the Hellespont (Dardanelles). Trade routes used by the Greek tribes passed through Troy. Perhaps the Trojans interfered with Greek trade, which forced the Greek tribes to unite and start a war with Troy, which was supported by numerous allies, because of which the war dragged on for many years.

Troy was surrounded by a high stone wall with battlements. The Achaeans did not dare to storm the city and did not block it, so the fighting took place on a flat field between the city and the besiegers' camp, which was located on the banks of the Hellespont.
The Trojans, on the other hand, sometimes broke into the enemy camp, trying to set fire to the Greek ships that were pulled ashore.
Listing in detail the ships of the Achaeans, Homer counted 1186 ships, on which a hundred thousandth army was transported. Undoubtedly, the number of ships and warriors is exaggerated.
In addition, it must be taken into account that these ships were just large boats, since they were easily pulled ashore and launched quite quickly. Such a ship could not lift 100 people ...
Most likely, the Achaeans had several thousand warriors. They were headed, as mentioned earlier, by Agamemnon, the king of the “multi-golden Mycenae”, and at the head of the warriors of each tribe was their leader.
Homer calls the Achaeans "spearmen", so there is no doubt that the main weapon of the Greek warriors was a spear with a copper tip. The warrior had a copper sword and a good defensive armament: greaves, armor on the chest, a helmet with a horse's mane and a large copper-bound shield.
Tribal leaders fought on war chariots or dismounted. The warriors of the lower hierarchy were armed worse: they had spears, slings, "double-edged axes", axes, bows and arrows, shields and were a support for their leaders, who themselves entered into single combat with the best warriors of Troy.
Thanks to Homer's descriptions, one can imagine the environment in which this martial art took place.
Opponents were located close to each other: war chariots lined up in a row; the warriors took off their armor and folded it next to the chariots, then sat down on the ground and watched the single combat of their leaders.
Martial artists first threw spears, then fought with copper swords, which soon fell into disrepair.
The leader who lost his sword took refuge in the ranks of his tribe, or he was given a new weapon to continue the struggle. The victor removed the armor from the slain and took away his weapon...
In preparation for the battle, the chariots and infantry were placed in a certain order: the war chariots lined up ahead of the infantry in a line while maintaining alignment, “so that no one, relying on his art and strength, would fight alone against the Trojans ahead of the rest, so that he would not rule back.”

Hiding behind the "bulging" shields, foot soldiers lined up behind the war chariots, who were armed with copper-tipped spears. The infantry was built in several ranks, which Homer calls "dense phalanxes." The leaders lined up the infantry, driving the cowardly warriors into the middle, "so that even those who do not want to fight would have to fight."
The war chariots were the first to enter the battle, then "continuously, one after another, the phalanxes of the Achaeans moved into battle against the Trojans", "they marched in silence, fearing their leaders."
The infantry delivered the first blows with spears, and then cut with swords. With war chariots infantry fought with spears. Archers also participated in the battle, but the arrow was not considered a reliable tool even in the hands of an excellent archer.
Definitely, in such conditions, the outcome of the struggle was decided by physical strength and the art of owning weapons, which often failed: the copper tips of the spears bent, and the swords broke. The maneuver on the battlefield was not yet used at that time, but the beginnings of organizing the interaction of war chariots and foot soldiers had already appeared.
Such a battle lasted until nightfall, and if an agreement was reached at night, then the corpses were burned. If there was no agreement, the opponents put up guards, organizing the protection of the troops that were in the field, and defensive structures (the fortress wall and camp fortifications - a moat, pointed stakes and a wall with towers).
The guard, which consisted, as a rule, of several detachments, was located behind the moat. In order to capture prisoners and find out the intentions of the enemy, reconnaissance was sent to the enemy camp at night, and meetings of tribal leaders were held at which the issue of further actions was decided. In the morning the battle resumed ...
This is how the endless battles between the Achaeans and the Trojans proceeded. According to Homer, only in the tenth year of the war (!) did the main events begin to unfold...
Once the Trojans, having achieved success in a night sortie, threw the enemy back to his fortified camp, surrounded by a moat. Having crossed the moat, the Trojans began to storm the wall with towers, but were soon driven back.
Later, they nevertheless managed to smash the gates with stones and break into the fortified camp of the Achaeans, where a bloody battle ensued for the ships. Homer explains such success of the Trojans by the fact that the best warrior of the besiegers, the invincible Achilles, who quarreled with Agamemnon, did not participate in the battle ...
Seeing that the Achaeans, pressed by the Trojans, were retreating, Achilles' friend Patroclus persuaded Achilles to allow him to join the battle and give him his armor. Encouraged by Patroclus, the Achaeans rallied, as a result of which the Trojans met fresh enemy forces near the ships. It was a dense formation of closed shields "a peak near a peak, a shield at the shield, going under the next one." The Achaean warriors lined up in several ranks and managed to repel the attack of the Trojans, and with a counterattack - "blows of sharp swords and a peak of two-pointed ones" - threw them back ...
The attack of the Trojans was repulsed, but Patroclus himself died at the hands of Hector, the son of Priam, king of Troy, and the armor of Achilles went to the enemy. Later, Hephaestus forged new armor and weapons for Achilles, after which Achilles, angry at the death of his friend, again entered the battle.
Subsequently, he killed Hector in a duel, tied his body to a chariot and rushed to his camp. The Trojan king Priam came to Achilles with rich gifts, begged him to return the body of his son and buried him with dignity.
This concludes Homer's Iliad.
According to later myths, later the Amazons led by Penfisilea and the king of the Ethiopians Memnon came to the aid of the Trojans. However, they soon died at the hands of Achilles.
And soon Achilles himself died from the arrows of Paris directed by Apollo, one of which hit the only weak spot - Achilles' heel, the other - in the chest.
The armor and weapons of the deceased Achilles went to Odysseus, who was recognized as the bravest of the Achaeans ...
After the death of Achilles, the Greeks were predicted that without the bow and arrows of Hercules, who were with Philoctetes, and Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, they would not be able to take Troy. An embassy was immediately sent for these heroes, and they hurried to the aid of their compatriots.
As a result, Philoctetes mortally wounded the Trojan prince Paris with the arrow of Hercules, and Odysseus and Diomedes killed the Thracian king Res, who was hurrying to the aid of the Trojans, and took away his magic horses, which, according to the prediction, once in the city, would make it impregnable.
Later, Odysseus and Diomedes made their way to Troy and stole palladium from the temple of Athena, which protected the city from enemies, however, despite this, the powerful defensive walls of Troy remained impregnable...
And then the cunning Odysseus came up with an unusual military trick ...
For a long time, secretly from others, he talked with a certain Epeus, the best carpenter in the Achaean camp. By evening, all the Achaean leaders gathered in the tent of Agamemnon for a military council, where Odysseus outlined his daring plan, according to which it was necessary to build a huge wooden horse, inside which the most skillful and courageous warriors were to be accommodated.
All the rest of the Achaean army must board the ships, move away from the Trojan coast and hide behind the island of Tendos. As soon as the Trojans see that the Achaeans have left the coast, they will think that the siege of Troy has been lifted and, for sure, will drag the wooden horse to Troy.
At night, the Achaean ships will return, and the soldiers who have taken refuge in a wooden horse will come out of it and open the fortress gates.
And then - the last assault on the hated city!
For three days the axes clanged in the zealously fenced-off part of the ship's parking lot, for three days the mysterious work was in full swing. On the side of the horse was written "This gift is brought to Athena the Warrior by the departing Danaans" 1 . To build a horse, the Greeks cut down dogwood trees that grew in the sacred grove of Apollo ( cranes), the victims propitiated Apollo and gave him the name Carney.
The Trojans, rejoicing at what was happening, left the besieged city and walked with curiosity along the deserted shore, and then with surprise surrounded a huge wooden horse that towered over the bushes of coastal willows.
Some of them advised to throw the horse into the sea, someone to burn it, but many insisted on dragging it into the city and placing it on the main square of Troy as a memory of the bloody battle of the peoples.
In the midst of a dispute, the priest of Apollo, Laocoön, and his two sons approached the wooden horse. "Fear the Danes who bring gifts!" - he cried and, snatching a sharp spear from the hands of the Trojan warrior, threw it at the wooden belly of the horse. The thrusting spear trembled, and a barely audible brass ringing was heard from the horse's belly.

However, no one listened to Laocoon, and all the attention of the crowd was attracted by the appearance of young men leading a captive Achaean. He was brought to King Priam, who was surrounded by court nobility next to a wooden horse.
The prisoner called himself Sinon and explained that he himself had fled from the Achaeans, who were supposed to sacrifice him to the gods - this was a condition for a safe return home.
Sinon convinced the Trojans that the wooden horse was a dedication gift to the goddess Athena, who could unleash her wrath on Troy if the Trojans destroyed the horse. However, if you put this horse in the city in front of the temple of Athena, then Troy will become invincible. At the same time, Sinon emphasized that this is why the Achaeans built the horse so huge that the Trojans could not drag it through the fortress gates...
Before Sinon had time to utter these words, a cry full of horror was heard from the sea: two huge snakes crawled out of the sea and entwined the priest Laocoön and his two sons with deadly rings of their smooth and sticky bodies. In an instant, the unfortunate ones gave up their spirit...
Now no one had any doubts about the veracity of Sinon's words, and having built a low platform on wheels, the Trojans mounted a wooden horse on it and drove it to the city. In order for the wooden horse to pass through the Skeian gates, the Trojans even had to dismantle a part of the fortress wall, but they still put the horse in the place indicated by Sinon...
At night, while the Trojans, intoxicated with success, were celebrating their victory, the Achaean scouts quietly got out of the horse and opened the gates. By this time, the Greek army, at the signal of Sinon, imperceptibly returned back and captured the city, as a result of which Troy was plundered and destroyed ...
How many Greek soldiers were placed in a Trojan horse?
According to the Little Iliad, 50 best warriors sat in it, according to Stesichorus - 100 warriors, according to others - 20, according to Tsetsu - 23, or only 9 warriors: Menelaus, Odysseus, Diomedes, Thesander, Sthenelus, Acamant, Foant, Machaon and Neoptolem 5 ...
But why did the horse become the cause of the death of Troy?
This question was asked in antiquity, and many authors tried to find a reasonable explanation for the legend. Various assumptions were made: for example, that the Achaeans had a battle tower on wheels, made in the shape of a horse and upholstered in horse skins; or that the Greeks managed to get into the city through an underground passage, on the door of which a horse was painted; or that the horse was a sign by which the Achaeans in the dark distinguished each other from opponents ...
Now it is generally accepted that the Trojan horse is an allegory of some kind of military trick that the Achaeans used when taking Troy.
Under the walls of Troy, almost all the heroes die, both Achaeans and Trojans, and of those who survive the war, many will die on the way home. Someone, like King Agamemnon, will find death at the hands of loved ones at home, someone will be expelled and spend his life wandering.
In essence, this is the end of the heroic age, and under the walls of Troy there are neither winners nor losers: the heroes are fading into the past, and the time for ordinary people is coming ...

Curiously, the horse is also symbolically associated with birth and death. A horse made of spruce wood, carrying something in its womb, symbolizes the birth of a new one, and a Trojan horse is made just from spruce boards, and armed warriors sit in its hollow belly. It turns out that the Trojan horse brings death to the defenders of the fortress, but at the same time means the birth of something new.
Around the same time, another historically important event took place in the Mediterranean: one of the great migrations of peoples began. From the north, the tribes of the Dorians, a barbarian people, moved to the Balkan Peninsula, which completely destroyed the ancient Mycenaean civilization.
Only a few centuries later, Greece will be reborn and it will be possible to talk about Greek history, and the destruction will be so great that the entire pre-Dorian history will become a myth and many states will cease to exist ...
The results of recent archaeological expeditions do not yet allow us to convincingly restore the scenario of the Trojan War, but their results do not deny that behind the Trojan epic lies the story of Greek expansion against a large state that was located on the western coast of Asia Minor and prevented the Greeks from gaining power over this region.
It remains to be hoped that the true history of the Trojan War will still be written someday ...

Sources of information:
1. Wikipedia site
2. Big encyclopedic dictionary
3. "Great secrets of the past" (Verlag Das Beste GmbH)
4. Kurushin M. "100 great military secrets"
5. Gigin "Myths"