HORSE OR SHIP? Or something else?
The theory of a naval archaeologist has been circulating for some time according to which the famous "Trojan horse" was actually a Phoenician ship with a horse-shaped prow https://www.lastampa.it/cultura/2017/11/01/news/il-mito-del-cavallo-di-troia-l-archeologo-in-realta-era-una-nave-1.34377431/Of course, horse-headed ships were also present in the Baltic and Northern Europe. Here is what I write in my THE CUNNING HOMER: "The sarcophagus found in Neumagen, the current name of the city of Noviomagus near Trier, gives an idea: it is the tomb of a rich merchant in the shape of a wine vessel, with four large barrels lined up in the middle, and the ends in the shape of a dragon's head like Viking ships, only it is much older than the Viking era, dating back to the 2nd century AD
Neumagen ship is in the Rhenish museum of Trier, an imperial Roman city built on the Moselle, the main tributary of the Rhine; Trier owed its wealth above all to the wine trade, and today it has been proclaimed a UNESCO heritage site for its cultural and artistic value.
Animal-headed vessels are represented in many ancient graffiti from northern Europe; bronze models are common in Sardinian archeology; even phoenix ships often had a prow in the shape of the head of a horse or other animal, just like Viking ships, so much so that they were called hippos.
Sweden, Tanum graffiti
Some scholars speculate that the famous "Trojan horse" was actually a ship of this type, but it is not explained why the Trojans would have to drag a ship into the city, when it would have been perfectly in place on the beach. One could also think that by coupling two ships one on top of the other like the shell of a nut, a container suitable for keeping a group of soldiers inside would be obtained. There is also the story of Helen who in the fourth book of the Odyssey tells Telemachus and her husband Menelaus that the good Ulysses, after inflicting vile wounds on his own and wearing rags, had introduced himself into Troy by pretending to be a beggar; only she had recognized him and had quietly started washing and anointing him, while he, the astute Achaean, revealed to her the whole plan to conquer Troy, making her swear not to tell anyone anything. And she was all happy because she couldn't wait to get back to her adored hubby. That is… the cunning Ulysses would have arrived unnoticed as far as the bedroom of the most beautiful woman in the world, just to get a refresher and tell her in full her shady drawing! We would be laughing even now, but Homer continues to tease us with the answer of Menelaus, who praises his wife and immediately afterwards tells of when he, Ulysses and all the best Achaean warriors were inside the wooden horse, and the what was Elena up to? From outside she called them all by name, imitating the voices of the wives left at home, while those inside were eager to answer her, and Ulysses shut their mouths! Suckers the Achaeans, and suckers the Trojans who didn't notice anything! Not to mention that the same story of the hollow horse with the warriors inside, which is transported to the city with great difficulty is decidedly improbable: no one realizes that there is something strange, or that there are people with weapons that resound with every jolt... and often the children to whom the story is told object with disarming innocence: "But those in there, after all that time, didn't they want to pee?". In short, the story contains such a forest of contradictions and absurdities that the good Telemachus sees fit to put an end to it quickly, repeating once again that his father is dead, and going to sleep. At this point we can also think, taking up the observations of some historians of ancient Greece, that the famous "Trojan Horse" was actually a kind of "war machine", not very different from those concocted by Caesar to conquer Alesia. Its name could mean that it was used to "jump over" the enemy walls, and it is no coincidence that in the game of chess, an ancient war game, the Knight is the only one capable of jumping over the other pieces. After all, other siege weapons also take their names from animals, such as the well-known "ram", used to break down doors, or the "tortoise" and the "onager", and were used since ancient times: Assyrian reliefs from the VII century BC they show self-propelled towers on wheels, used to attack the walls of enemy cities. Reporting the events of the Germanic wars of the first century, Tacitus (Histories, 4, 30) describes the attempts of the Batavian (a tribe settled near the mouth of the Rhine) to build a two-story siege tower, which however collapsed miserably: that it shows, on the one hand, that the Germans also built war machines, and on the other hand, that they weren't so good at it. So making the "horse" had to be a job that required a certain amount of ingenuity, worthy of the astute Ulysses; who however, contrary to what is often believed, reports that the builder of the device had been a certain Epeus (Od. VIII,493 and XI, 523), otherwise little known. If nothing else we can't blame Ulysses for violating copyright as well! We must also consider the propensity of the Nordic peoples to drink and get drunk in exaggeratly, well testified by all the historical sources: Troy was destroyed because its inhabitants, deluded that the enemies had gone away, did not put anyone on guard and they went crazy so much that they were all blind drunk!
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