Re: the Trojan Horse (Explanation) plus other things!
“Tonyblack“ said:
I must admit that the story of the Trojan Horse never made a lot of sense to me either. Terry’s version works much better.
It’s 6 years later, but I believe I can explain this because I’ve done
A LOT of reading about the Trojan Wars etc.
The mythological explanation, in short, is that the Trojans worshipped Poseidon. As well as being the god of the sea, Poseidon was also the god of horses. So when the Greeks “left” and left behind a giant wooden horse, the Trojans considered it to be a peace offering - which is why they brought it inside their city, to celebrate. “We won the war! Yay!”
The more prosaic (but also more interesting) explanation comes from military technology. It’s possible that the Trojan Horse was a reference to the battering ram, a siege weapon. This was basically a long and thick wooden pole, long enough to be grasped by 5 or 6 people, and swung against wooden doors to bash them in. The end of the ram was usually decorated with iron animal heads - normally a ram (which is why it’s called a battering ram), but it could be a horse or anything else. Here’s what it (may have) looked like:
Number 1
Number 2
Number 3
Please note, of course, that no battering ram in history ever looked like
Grond.
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Incidentally, earlier today I had a “facepalm” moment. At one point during
Eric, the parrot tells Rincewind that Eric’s grandfather always tried to conjure up a succubus, but that “it never worked; all he ever got was a Neuralger.” (It’s a demon that comes and has a headache at you).
For years, the name “Neuralger” bugged me because I was sure that I’d heard it before, and was never sure where. I finally figured it out... it’s a reference to
neuralgia, isn’t it?
Groan... *headdesks*
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