Editing Trojan War (section)

====Trojan Horse====
{{Main|Trojan Horse}}
[[File:Mykonos vase.jpg|thumb|left|The earliest known depiction of the Trojan Horse, from the [[Mykonos vase]] {{circa|670 BC}}]]
The end of the war came with one final plan. Odysseus devised a new ruse{{snd}}[[Trojan Horse|a giant hollow wooden horse]], an animal that was sacred to the Trojans. It was built by [[Epeius]] and guided by Athena,<ref name=AE514>Homer, ''Odyssey'' 8.492–495; Apollodorus, ''Epitome'' 5.14.</ref> from the wood of a [[cornel tree]] grove sacred to Apollo,<ref>Pausanias, 3.13.5.</ref> with the inscription: "The Greeks dedicate this thank-offering to Athena for their return home".<ref>Apollodorus, ''Epitome'' 5.15, Simpson, p. 246.</ref> The hollow horse was filled with soldiers<ref>Apollodorus, ''Epitome'' 5.14, says the hollow horse held 50, but attributes to the author of the ''Little Iliad'' a figure of 3,000, a number that Simpson, p. 265, calls "absurd", saying that the surviving fragments only say that the Greeks put their "best men" inside the horse. [[John Tzetzes|Tzetzes]], ''Posthomerica'' 641–650, gives a figure of 23, while [[Quintus Smyrnaeus]], ''Posthomerica'' xii.314–335, gives the names of thirty, and says that there were more. In late tradition it seems it was standardized at 40.</ref> led by Odysseus. The rest of the army burned the camp and sailed for [[Tenedos]].<ref>Homer, ''Odyssey'' 8.500–504; Apollodorus, ''Epitome'' 5.15.</ref>

When the Trojans discovered that the Greeks were gone, believing the war was over, they "joyfully dragged the horse inside the city",<ref>Apollodorus, ''Epitome'' 5.16, as translated by Simpson, p. 246. Proculus, ''Chrestomathy'' 3, ''Little Iliad'', says that the Trojans pulled down a part of their walls to admit the horse.</ref> while they debated what to do with it. Some thought they ought to hurl it down from the rocks, others thought they should burn it, while others said they ought to dedicate it to Athena.<ref name=PC4IP>Proclus, ''Chrestomathy'' 4, ''Iliou Persis''.</ref><ref>Homer, ''Odyssey'' 8.505 ff.; Apollodorus, ''Epitome'' 5.16–15.</ref>

Both Cassandra and [[Laocoön]] warned against keeping the horse.<ref>Apollodorus, ''Epitome'' 5.17 says that Cassandra warned of an armed force inside the horse, and that Laocoön agreed.</ref> While Cassandra had been given the gift of prophecy by Apollo, she was also cursed by Apollo never to be believed. Serpents then came out of the sea and devoured either Laocoön and one of his two sons,<ref name=PC4IP/> Laocoön and both his sons,<ref>Virgil, ''Aeneid'' 2.199–227; Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' 135;</ref> or only his sons,<ref>Quintus Smyrnaeus, ''Posthomerica'' xii.444–497; Apollodorus, ''Epitome'' 5.18.</ref> a portent which so alarmed the followers of Aeneas that they withdrew to Ida.<ref name=PC4IP/> The Trojans decided to keep the horse and turned to a night of mad revelry and celebration.<ref name=PC3LI/> [[Sinon]], an Achaean spy, signalled the fleet stationed at Tenedos when "it was midnight and the clear moon was rising"<ref>Scholiast on Lycophroon, 344.</ref> and the soldiers from inside the horse emerged and killed the guards.<ref>Apollodorus, ''Epitome'' 5.19–20.</ref>