Trojan Horse (legend)

Trojan Horse (legend), in Greek legend, a huge, hollow, wooden horse used by the attacking Greeks to gain entrance to the city of Troy, thus ending the Trojan War. Unable to capture the city after a siege of ten years, the Greeks resorted to stratagem. They sailed away and left the horse, filled with armed warriors, on the shore. Sinon, a Greek spy, persuaded the Trojans to take the horse into the city, convincing them that to do so would mysteriously make Troy invulnerable. That night Sinon let out the armed Greek troops; killing the guards, they opened the gates to the Greeks, and Troy was captured and burned.