Beware of the Greeks when they bear gifts!

Beware of the Greeks when they bear gifts!

Just over 3200 years ago, a ten year war came to a bloody and tragic end on 24th April.

The great city of Priam near the mouth of the Dardanelles had held out valiantly over the years against the Greek army of Agamemnon, Menelaus, Achilles and Odysseus. To bring the war to an end the cunning mind of Odysseus is believed to have conjured up the idea of constructing a wooden horse and to leave it outside the walls of Troy as a gift to the goddess Athena.

The Trojans inside the city thought that the Greeks had given up all hope of victory and had abandoned this 'gift' for Athena. Little did they know that inside the horse a small group of Greek soldiers were waiting for their moment to climb out of the horse during the night.

The Trojan priest of Apollo named Laocoon struck the wooden horse uttering the famous phrase "beware of the gifts when they bear gifts". Unfortunately his fate had already been decided by the gods who had the priest and his sons strangled on the spot by sea serpents. It was nothing to do with hitting the horse but it was amazingly bad timing!!! 

The Trojans took the horse inside the city walls and that night, after drunken celebrations by the city's population for the supposed end of the war, the Greeks inside the horse climbed out, opened the city gates and the rest of the Greek army reappeared and burnt Troy to the ground. That last night of Troy was 24th April 1184B.C.

Aeneas, one of the princes of Priam, escaped the inferno with his father Anchises and his young son Ascanius. Their journey through the ancient world is described in Virgil's Aeneid.

What's the Italian connection to all of this? Ascanius is said to have settled in Italy and founded the city of Albalonga.

Learn more about Albalonga from my blog in the coming days.

Written by: Robert Coghlan
Photo by: Robert Coghlan