The battles continue

The war started again and time was passing. Now even the Trojans didn't go out into the plain much, but it was no use. For the walls of Troy were high and strong, and the Greeks could not get up and take it. They had now been ten years in Troy, and their despair was great. They wanted to go home again. But how could they return in shame?

The plan of Odysseus

Then Odysseus, the cleverest of all, thought, thought, thought, and one day he called the others and said to them: "You see how we have been fighting for ten years now and we have not taken Troy. Our best lads have been killed and still nothing. So I think that by war Troy is not taken. I say we put forward this plan: to build a great horse that can hold up to ten warriors. We'll dedicate it to Athena and then we'll make our escape.

The whole army, that is, will pack up their things and get on the ships that will leave. But we will not go, but we will hide and wait from there. I hope the Trojans will come out and take the wooden horse into the city. Then at night, we'll come back.

All ten of us come out of the horse's belly; they open the doors and we enter Troy.  Everyone accepted Ulysses' plan. And the next day, they began to flame the big wooden horse, the "Trojan Horse" as they called it.

The Greeks are hiding in Tenedos

And when they were done, the ten warriors went in. The other Greeks packed up the tents and everything else they had, put them in the boats and soon they were leaving.

They didn't leave, of course, but they went and hid behind the small island of Tenedos and waited.

The Trojans see the deserted coast

The Trojans also looked up from the walls and could not believe their eyes. For ten years they had been accustomed to seeing the Greeks on the shore, and now the place was deserted. The more daring went out, went as far as the sea, looking this way, looking that way. They could not see a soul. They run back to town and bring the news to the others. Then all the Trojans went down to the shore, now free from fear. All they could see on the desert shore was a giant Trojan horse.

Trojans and Trojan Horse

Mad with joy, the Trojans also see the horse that had a vow to Athena written on it, and they all want to take it into the city. Then Laocoon, priest of Apollo, comes out in the middle and says to them: Watch out: Be afraid of the Greeks, and when they bring you gifts, and with his staff he struck the horse's ribs.

The death of Laocoon

At that moment, however, something strange happened. Two huge snakes began to come hissing out, moving forward without harming anyone. Only when they came close to Laocoon and his two children did they spilled furiously, coiled up and choked them.

The Trojans put the Trojan Horse in the city

The Trojans saw the miracle and immediately decided to take the Trojan horse into the city. So they began to push him, many of them together, until they reached the castle gates.

However, there was no room for the huge horse to enter through the doors. So they tore down part of the wall and took him inside.

The Trojans are partying

When the night came, then the Trojans threw a party. They were glad to be spared the war and suffering. They ate, drank and danced, carefree and happy.

The attack of the Greeks

When midnight came, then the warriors came out of the horse's belly, climbed high up on the walls, lit fires, opened the doors and waited. Seeing the fires, the Greeks, who had returned to the harbor as soon as night fell, got out of the ships and rushed into the plain. Soon, they entered the city through the open doors.

Lament

In the night there were wails, moans, children crying, mothers crying out, voices pleading, voices wild, voices that stopped abruptly. And in the red flashes of the fire that burned Troy, you could see people running, people falling, hands pleading, swords gleaming. Sad rivers of blood and tears flowed all night long. What people had built for years and years was destroyed in a matter of hours.

Total destruction

When the sun came out, the fires were still burning in Troy. Even the temples had burned. And among the dead was the lifeless body of old Primo. The Ten Years' War had brought nothing but evil. It filled the souls of the Greeks with hatred and Troy with ruins.

Aeneas

In the midst of the unexpected catastrophe, a noble lad of the Trojans, Aeneas, sprang from his sweet sleep, took up his weapons and, fighting bravely, managed to reach the palace. But he found Priam dead, and he knew that his country had no salvation.

He then returned home, passing over dead bodies and among angry Greeks. The flames were consuming Troy on all sides.

He took on his shoulders the statues of the gods and his father, and holding his young son by the hand, he tried to get out of Troy. He passed among the Greeks and no one harmed him, out of respect for what he was trying to save.

Finally, Aeneas and a few other Trojans managed to take twenty ships and leave. The gods led them to Italy, after a long and difficult journey across the seas. There, Aeneas founded a new state and became king himself.

The Greeks, when they wanted to say that the gods, the homeland and the family are above all, they used Aeneas as an example.

The joy of the Greeks

The Greeks then began to carry treasures, slaves, food and things in their ships. Menelaus was thrilled and took the beautiful Helen and his treasures on board.

The Greeks were happy and proud of their victory and the spoils they had captured. They were in a hurry to return home glorified, to recount the adventures, sufferings and achievements of the war, but also to live peaceful days.

Wrath of the Gods

But the gods were angry, because the Greeks disrespected the temples, the priests, and even the young, innocent children, and threw them into many adventures on the journey home. Many ships sank and many Greeks died in unknown lands.

Thus ended the ten-year Trojan War.