Troia Legend, War & Wooden Horse

          The land between Marmara Sea, Çanakkale Cross & Edremit Bay and known as Biga Peninsula was known as TROAD or TROAS in ancient ages.

            The most important city in this region is TROIA city which gave the region its name. The French origined name was transferred as TRUVA to our language, in ancient Greek it was used as "TROIA" or "TROYA".

Approxiamtely 3200 years before today, the brave & peacefull people of Troya, a city near Çanakkale Bosphorus, contionued a long peacefull & happy life under the manage of their King, Priamos.

            Due to legend, gods got jealous of this happiness & decided to bring a curse to Troyans.

            One day, King Priamos's wife Hekabe had a bad dream. In her dream  there were fire coming from her tummy & the smoke of the fire surrounded all the trumps of Troya. Hekabe told her dream to a fortune teller. Due to his comment; Hekabe is pregnant, the baby that will born will bring trouble to Troyans in future & it must be killed at the moment of birth. King Priamos believed in the prediction & gave a duty to one of his men to kill the baby after the birth. The Troyan was unable to kill the defenseless newborn & with the thought of it will be killed by a wild animal took the baby to Kazdağı former name IDA & left to the forest. However before the wild animals the baby was found by a shepherd & this baby is Paris who will be trouble for Troyans in future.

            Long years pass. Quarrel goddess Eris is not invited to King Peleus & Sea fairy Thetis's marriage ceremony with the reason of she may cause a fight.

            In order to take the revenge of this Eris leaves an apple labelled “TO THE MOST BEAUTIFUL” to the hall of ceremony. A fight occurs between Power Goddess Hera, Wisdom Goddess Athena & Love Goddess Aphrodit to possess the golden apple. All three of them apply to God Zeus to as to be their refereea. In order not to offend any of the Goddesses & to remove this trouble from Olympos, Zeus told that he doesn’t understand from such things the judgement must be done by a mortal & they have to apply to Troyan Paris who is in IDA mountain.

            Goddesses find Paris, by the guiding of News God Hermes. Hermes gives the golden apple to Paris telling that he must give the apple the one he finds the most beautiful of all. Goddesses offer bribe in order to make Paris decide easier. Hera offers power. She will make Paris the most powerfull King of Europe & Asia. Athena will make Paris the most wise King of earth & will make him win the war against Greece. Aphrodit offers the most beautiful woman of earth to Paris.

            Thinking to posses the most beautiful woman Paris gave the golden apple to Aphrodit. Athena & Hera were very angry to this & began to make plans for the distruction of  Troya.

            Agamemnon is a dictator who is after earth domination. According to him everything is valid in order to invade new areas. After invading Greece he is now after invading Troya at Anatolia waiting for an occasion.

            Achille, (Akhilleus) is a big & skillfull Greek warrior. Though he fights with Agamemnon he hates him. Achille only fight to take his part in history. Agamemnon is against Achille as well.

            Aphrodit provided Paris to reach to Greece in order to keep her word. The most beautiful woman of the earth eas Menelaos King of Isparta wife Helen.

            Troyan handsome prince Paris ran to Troya with Menelaos’s beautiful wife Helen on seeing that Menelaos is in Cretan. So there is an occasion for an attack to Troya & Menelaos sends messengers to all Greek Kings for help to open war to Troya.

            About a 1000 ships & over 100 thousand Akha warriors were transported to Troya. Very powerfull & crowded Akha’s attacks to the city over & over again. But since the Troya is surrounded by powerfull trumps & Anatolian people took aside Troyans accepting Akhas as a common enemy they were unable to take Troya. The war lasts for 9 years & victory always chance sides.

            In order to prevent war Menelaos & Paris face one to one. Since Paris feared for fight Menelaos is announced as the winner. As decided before Helen must be given back. However Hera & Atena don’t want war to finish before Troya collapses. They trick Troyan Pandoros & make him attack to Menelaos. This starts the war again.

            This time Troyans drive Akhas to their ships. Troyan commander Hektor became a hero before his army. Achille began to make preparations to go back on thinking this is not his war & gave his armour to his close friend Patroklos. However when Patroklos is killed by Hektor; Achille fights against Hektor & kills Hektor.

            Non ending wars cause too many people to die on both sides; Gods, Goddesses also fight against each other on battle field. However Troyans still keep their power & the city trumps are standing untouched. There is no other choice than destroying Troyans by taking the army within the city in order to stop the war. In order to realize this Odysseus gave the idea of making a wooden horse. Due to the idea a determined number of soldiers were placed within the big & empty horse. Odysseus & other elite commanders also hide in the horse & others sail with their ship at the back of Bozcaada, where Troyans will not be able to see them. In order to execute the plan they left an Akha soldier back. The mission of this soldier was to persuade Troyans to take the horse to city.

            One morning Troyans wake up consternatedly. Everywhere is so calm; noisy Akha camp is completely empty & the ships are gone. There is an immense wooden horse standing before the west door.  Troyans think that Akhas ceased war & turned back to Greece on accepting the defeat. Sinon the one who was left behind by Akhas was a good actor & he lied that he is a soldier that ran from Akhas & improvised a story to let the horse in; wooden horse was built as a holly gift to Goddess Athena. The reason of its mass was to prevent Troyans to take it inside from the narrow doors of the city.  Akhas expectation was Troyans to burn down the horse. By this Goddess Athena will direct her anger towards Troya. However if the Troyans take the horse in the city & protect it the favor of the Goddess will be towards Troyans. Everyone believed this clever story except Troyan priest Laokoon & Hektor’s sister Kassandra. Priest Laokoon warns them saying “beware of Greeks giving presents" & tells the horse should be burned down immedeatly. But nobody believes.

            Troyans pull the horse inside the city without any hesitation. According to Troyans the war of ten years is over & the missing peace is realized at last. Troyans celebrate this with fun & fiest.

            On midnight when everyone is in deep sleep Odysseus & his friends got out of the horse one by one, kill the guards & open the doors wide. Akha Army was very close to city. The soldiers quietly passed the open doors to city & initiated fire everywhere. The Troyans that come out in order to distinguish the fire werte killed instantly.

            Achille is killed with a poisonous arrow shot by Paris while wondering among the wreck. Achille’s son Neoptolemus kills Paris. Death of Paris is not a loss for Troyans. He was the source of all the trouble.

            That horrible night when Troya was burned down, Helen goes to her former spouse Menelaos. The other day when they sail towards Greece, the only thing they have left behind from this proud city of Asia was a burning wreck.