Odysseus at Troy

Odysseus was one of the greatest assets to the Greek army at Troy. He was a brave fighter and a brilliant strategist. He carried out a number of successful spying missions with his friend Diomedes. On one occasion, they captured a Trojan named Dolon and forced him to reveal where they could find King Rhesus ofThrace, who was helping the Trojans. They killed Dolon, then went and killed Rhesus and his men as they slept. Odysseus was so cunning that he was even able to sneak inside the walled city of Troy. Disguised as a beggar, he stole a statue of Athena called the Palladium.

The Trojan Horse

The Greeks finally won the Trojan War by playing a trick on the Trojans. They built a huge wooden horse and left it outside Troy, then sailed away and hid at a nearby island. One Greek man, Sinon, was left to explain to the Trojans that the Greeks had retreated and gone home, leaving the horse as an offering to the goddess Athena. The Trojans took the horse into Troy. They did not realize that a band of Greek soldiers, including Odysseus, was hiding inside it. The hideaway Greeks climbed out of the horse and opened the gates of Troy to let in the rest of the Greek armies, who had sailed back to Troy, and the city was destroyed.

When she saw the horse being brought into Troy, Helen suspected something. She walked around it, calling out the names of Greek soldiers she knew, and imitated their wives' voices in the hope of making them call out if they were inside. A soldier named Anticlus nearly called out. To stop him, Odysseus held his hand over Anticlus's mouth for so long that he suffocated the man to death. This is one example of Odysseus's uncompromising nature.

Below: This 16th-century fresco by Italian painter Giulio Romano (c.1499—1546) depicts the construction of the Trojan horse.

At Troy, Odysseus also took his revenge on Palamedes. He had a Trojan captive write a fake letter, making it appear that Palamedes was spying for the Trojans. Then Odysseus buried some gold in Palamedes’ tent. When the letter and the gold were discovered, Palamedes was accused of treachery and was stoned to death. According to some versions of the myth, Odysseus came up with the idea for the wooden horse, an invention that was decisive in the Greek victory at Troy.