S6E8 - Troy: One Horse to Rule Them All

The stories featured in Greaking Out are original adaptations of classic Greek myths.

This week's story features an absolute bummerscape of death, ambiguous characters, the Homeric expanded universe, war, living in the big city, and a giant wooden horse.

This episode is about war, so skip it if you've had enough of that lately.

Listen and you'll see it spreaking

out.

Well, Oracle, it has been a journey so far.

We've done a speed run through the epic cycle, and today is the finale, the day the war ends.

The epic cycle refers to a collection of epic poetry that details the Trojan War, sometimes including the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Okay, and the Odyssey is really about Odysseus, right?

And we barely scratched the surface there.

Exactly.

The epic cycle also includes the telegony, some of which we discussed in our episode about Circe.

Okay, good to know we still have more to cover in future seasons, but back to the war.

Things are looking pretty bad for all parties involved.

The Trojans just watched Achilles kill their beloved Prince Hector.

They were devastated and demoralized and really sick of this never-ending war.

And the Greeks had problems of their own.

They had a power-hungry leader who was unwilling to give up the fight, a grief-stricken Achilles who was still mourning the loss of Patroclus, and no way into the city of Troy.

But allow me for a second to take you back in time, back to when Achilles and Agamemnon were fighting over captives.

Time travel is not only currently impossible, it's also unethical and very messy.

Okay, but this is just a theater of the mind situation.

We're not bending the rules of space and time or anything.

Then, proceed.

Right, so...

Wait a minute.

Hold on.

Oracle, do you know something about time travel that I don't?

Do you is it...

Proceed.

Right.

Okay, you know what?

We're just gonna move past this.

Okay, so while all the drama was happening, one man had been hard at work trying to end the war.

Spoiler alert.

It was Odysseus.

Oh, we've progressed to spoiler alerts.

I like it.

But yes, it was Odysseus.

He missed Ithaca.

He missed his wife.

And the last time he'd seen his son, the boy had been less than a year old.

And now his son was about 10.

Now, Odysseus was a favorite of Athena's.

And he spent his days, while Achilles and Agamemnon were squabbling, just contemplating the massive walls of the Trojan city.

He knew Athena was not giving him the inspiration he needed for some reason, and one day, a local seer told him why.

Troy will not fall while the palladium remains within its walls.

Now, this wasn't immediately clear.

I mean, what was a palladium, and how on earth was he expected to get inside Troy and steal it?

Were those rhetorical questions, or can I provide the answers?

Go ahead, take it away.

The palladium.

was a small statue that served as a memorial to Pallas, a beloved friend of the goddess Athena.

Exactly.

And Athena was very attached to the palladium.

She didn't want anything bad to happen to Troy while the palladium was still inside the city walls.

So, now with a goal in front of him, Odysseus set to work.

While the walls of Troy might be impenetrable to a whole army, one clever person could find their way in somehow.

So Odysseus grabbed another warrior named Diomedes, and the two disguised themselves as beggars, dressing in rags and covering covering themselves in dirt and grime.

When they were done, no one would have thought these were two of the most well-respected men in the Greek army.

Since no one was paying attention to them, they were able to enter the city without incident and went around trying to find the palladium.

Instead, they ran into an old friend, Helen of Sparta, now of Troy.

Of course, she wasn't alone.

Obviously, since she was royalty and arguably the cause of the war, she was surrounded by guards and attendants at all times.

But Odysseus and Diomedes saw her, and more importantly, she saw them.

The two warriors froze.

Neither had spoken to Helen since they were suitors of hers all those years ago.

They had no idea how she felt about this war or whose side she was on.

She stayed in the city of Troy for over nine years.

Well, it's not that simple, Oracle.

You see, women were not expected to make those kinds of decisions on their own in ancient Greece.

Her role was to sit tight and let everyone else figure it out.

We're going to sidebar here for a second.

You see, Helen is a tough character to understand.

In some versions of the story, she willingly went with Paris, and in some, she didn't.

In some versions, she's doing small actions to help the Greeks throughout the war, like hiding weapons.

And in other versions, it's the exact opposite.

It really depends upon how the teller of the story wants you to feel about Helen.

I think the thing to remember is that in all the ancient versions of the story, Helen had no choice in all of this.

The Greek and Trojan armies don't particularly care what she wants.

She might as well be a fancy chair that Paris stole from Menelaus.

But it matters to us how she felt.

And I think it matters a lot.

So that's how we're telling our story.

Okay, back to it.

Is this beggar bothering you, my lady?

asked one of the guards, breaking the three-way staring contest Helen, Diomedes, and Odysseus had going on.

Of course not, Helen said, flipping her long shining hair.

Everyone is welcome to worship in the Temple of Athena.

And she pointed down the street towards a large building.

As she walked away with her cloud of attendants, Helen sent an extra-long look over her shoulder at the two Greeks in disguise.

And sure enough, They found the palladium in the temple of Athena and only had to wait until nighttime to smuggle it out of the city.

When the two got back to the Greek camp that night, they found that a lot had happened in their absence.

Patroclus was dead, and so was Hector, and a true sadness had fallen over the army.

But once the palladium was outside the city walls, Odysseus had what we like to call divine inspiration.

Call a meeting, he said to the troops.

Tell Agamemnon I know what to do.

When the leaders of the Greek army were gathered together, Odysseus was practically bouncing with excitement.

I figured it out, he said.

The great goddess of battle strategy has shown me the way.

And then Odysseus went on to outline what might have been the wildest war strategy of all time.

He explained that the Greeks would need to build a giant horse out of wood.

The horse needed to be beautiful and impressive, but most importantly, it needed to be hollow.

Because unbeknownst to the Trojans, inside the body of this horse would be be 30 of the most accomplished Greek soldiers.

If all went according to plan, the Trojans would think the horse was a gift from the Greeks and bring it inside the city bypassing those impressive walls.

And then, when night fell, the Greek soldiers would cut their way out of the belly of the horse and open the gates for the rest of the Greek army.

Ha ha!

When Odysseus told the others this plan, They were skeptical.

Are you sure this is going to work?

Agamemnon said.

Well, we need to abandon camp and move all of our ships out of sight.

It needs to look like we really left, Odysseus explained.

It was a crazy idea.

There were millions of ways it could go wrong, but for some reason, Odysseus's plans always seemed to hit their mark, no matter how crazy they were.

All right, Agamemnon said.

Let's try it.

If we pull this off, it will be remembered for the rest of history.

Agamemnon was correct.

The phrase Trojan horse is still used in modern-day language.

To describe something as a Trojan horse is to imply it only appears to be a good thing to gain access, but actually

it is hiding something bad inside.

So the Greeks got to work constructing the Trojan horse.

And when the horse was finally ready, three days later, 30 Greek warriors hid inside and waited for the perfect moment to escape.

The remainder of the Greeks packed up the camp they'd been living in for over nine years and got it into the ships.

They sailed out to an island just off the coast and waited.

As the morning dawned on that day and the fog started to clear, all the Trojans could see was an empty beach with just the remains of a camp scattered about.

In the middle of it all was a giant wooden horse.

When it was spotted by the Trojan soldiers, they alerted King Priam immediately.

Sir!

Sir, they're gone!

Sir, the Greeks have left!

King Priam was shocked.

Why would the Greeks leave now?

They had the upper hand after Achilles killed Hector.

They had waited for over nine years.

Why would they choose this moment to leave?

And there's something else, the Trojan soldier said.

They left us something.

Well, what is it?

Priam asked.

It's uh,

well, I uh it's kind of a big wooden horse.

Now that was not what Priam had expected to hear.

He decided that he needed to go check out this situation for himself.

He headed down to the beach with a team of his closest advisors and his daughter, Cassandra.

In addition to being Priam's daughter, Cassandra is a seer with the power of prophecy.

However, she was cursed by Apollo, and now no one takes her predictions seriously.

Which is very unfortunate because Cassandra knew right away that the Trojan horse was a trap.

Burn it!

She said to King Priam.

Burn it!

It's a trick!

I know it!

Burn it immediately!

The men inside the horse started to sweat.

That would not be good for them.

But of course, Priam didn't believe Cassandra because she was cursed and no one ever believed Cassandra.

You know, I'm feeling a commercial break right now.

I think this is a good place to take a moment.

We'll get a break.

We'll come back with more Greaking Out in just a little bit.

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I suppose this is their offering to the god Poseidon for a safe trip home.

It would be disgraceful for us to burn it.

We cannot risk offending the gods.

Father, this is dangerous.

I know it.

It's a trap.

We must get rid of it, Cassandra pleaded.

But King Priam would not hear of it.

I don't know why the Greeks have decided to leave, but I am am thankful for it.

Let us bring this offering inside the gates to honor our city.

And with that, the mighty gates of Troy were opened fully, and the large wooden horse was brought inside their massive walls.

It was met with joy and gratitude.

The citizens of Troy truly believed that this meant the end of the war.

The Greeks were gone.

They had left an offering to the gods to apologize for their horrible behavior.

The Trojans had won.

Wrong.

Wrong and wrong.

Yes, the Trojans were wrong on all accounts.

That night, after everyone in Troy was done partying and had gone to sleep, the Greek soldiers quietly climbed out of the wooden horse.

Silently, they crept through the city and opened the gates.

And waiting there, on the other side, was the remainder of the Greek army ready for battle.

By the time the Trojans realized what was happening, it was too late.

The soldiers did their best to fight, but they were unarmed and unprepared.

The Greeks quickly took control of the city.

In the middle of this crazy fray, Paris fought as much as he could, but he was gravely wounded.

In a moment of pure anger and desperation, he notched an arrow in his bow and aimed a shot at the mighty Achilles.

Some say he had a really, really lucky shot.

And some say Apollo himself guided the arrow.

But either way, this arrow went straight through Achilles' one weak spot.

Right in his Achilles heel.

Exactly.

And just like that, the greatest warrior of all time was dead.

There are multiple versions of this story.

In most versions, Achilles died before the horse was even built.

Right.

The general line is Achilles died on the battlefield of Troy.

But mostly the details change.

And anyway, I don't think his heart was in it.

After Patroclus died, he just wanted to go home.

They say that his body was cremated and his ashes were mixed with Patroclus in the same vessel.

Cremation is the burning of a body to reduce it to ashes.

The death of the great warrior might actually have saved Paris.

As the battle paused to watch Achilles go down with such a small wound, Paris managed to escape the slaughter.

He knew that if he didn't escape now, he was going to die too.

He was badly wounded, but staggered back to his bedchambers to get Helen.

We need to leave.

Now, they're coming for us, he cried.

No, they are coming for you.

I will take my chances with the Greeks.

I am done following you around, she said to Paris.

He was shocked.

But I thought you loved me.

It was Aphrodite that loved you.

I was nothing more than a pawn in your game.

I am going back to Sparta to be with my true husband and my daughter.

Paris was surprised, but he didn't wait around for any more goodbyes.

He knew he would die if he didn't get medical help, and he knew just where to go to get it.

Not long after Paris had left, there was a commotion in the hallway outside Helen's rooms, and before she could see what was happening, Menelaus stood in the doorway.

Menelaus and Helen stared at each other for a long time.

Let's go home, Helen said.

And they did.

Before the battle was even over, they had boarded a ship back to Sparta.

They were eager to get home to their people and their daughter.

Meanwhile, out in the mountains where Paris had grown up, a dying Trojan prince stumbled to a place where he knew there would be a beautiful nymph named Oinone.

Oinone, he called, Oinone, great healer, true love of my life.

I need your help, or I will die.

And so Oinone rose out of the river to see the young man who had left her for his fancy city relatives now asking her for help.

I would not be inclined to help him.

Yeah, neither was Oinone.

Who are you?

She asked, annoyed.

I don't believe we've ever met.

It's me.

Paris!

Paris, Prince of Troy!

Paris said.

I don't know any Trojan princes, Oinone Oinone said, and she splashed back into her river, leaving Paris to die on its banks.

And that's it.

The war is over.

The Greeks had won.

The Trojans were finished.

Not all the Trojans.

You're right.

Aeneas, cousin to Hector and the last of the Trojan royal family, somehow managed to escape the carnage in the great city.

He had with him his son, Ascanius, and his father Anchises and a small group of refugees.

He famously carried his elderly father out of the burning city.

Aeneas had to leave with nothing.

Although some say he did grab something from the Greeks on his way out.

The Palladium.

Yeah, the Palladium.

Now it might have been the protection he got from the Palladium or the fact that his mother, Aphrodite, was looking over him, but Aeneas and his family went on to have many more adventures and his descendants went on to found a little place you might have heard of.

Rome.

Yes, they went on to found the city of Rome.

But that's a story for another day.

But back to Troy.

With Agamemnon in control of the city, the destruction carried on for days.

No one was safe from his viciousness, and the entire city of Troy was burned to the ground.

It's kind of hard to be on one side or another on this one.

We told this story mostly from the Greeks' point of view, but the Romans liked to make the Trojans out to be the good guys.

You can see it as a ragtag group of soldiers going against a wealthy, privileged city, or as a barbarian force overtaking a shining civilization.

Either way, the effects of the fall of Troy were felt for generations to come.

The death and destruction the world experienced on that day were so brutal that the gods themselves were enraged by the actions of some of the Greeks.

In fact, very few of the Greeks that participated in the sack of Troy lived a happy life afterwards.

They were marked by violence, and the gods seemed to be stacking things against them.

But those stories are for another season, because we've reached the end of our story of the Trojan War.

It was a very long story.

It was indeed.

And you only revealed a few spoilers.

I will not.

apologize for spoiling a story that is thousands of years old.

Yeah, I guess this is what you would call a creative difference.

But while the war may be over, this podcast season is not.

We still have two more episodes coming up this season, and I know you're going to love them.

Greaking Out.

Thanks for listening.

For the next two episodes, we're once again on the move to various subcontinents and peninsulas.

Stay tuned.

Listen and you'll see it.

National Geographic Kids Greaking Out is written by Kenny Curtis and Jillian Hughes and hosted by Kenny Curtis, with Tori Kerr as the oracle of Wi-Fi, audio production and sound design by Scotty Beam, and our theme song was composed by Perry Gripp.

Allison Shaw provided editorial assistance, Dr.

Lillian Doherty is our subject matter expert, and Emily Everhart is our producer.