Sinon

After the wooden horse was completed, Odysseus asked the best of the Greeks to hide inside it. He also called for a man to remain in the deserted camp and deceive the Trojans. Sinon volunteered, although he risked being disbelieved and killed. The Greeks burned their huts, boarded their ships, and sailed to Tenedos, leaving the horse on the shore.

At dawn, the Trojans saw that the Greek fleet had gone. They found the camp deserted and the great wooden horse standing there. Scouts also found Sinon, who had hidden where they were likely to discover him. They bound his hands and dragged him to Priam and the princes. Some Trojans wanted to torture him with fire until he told them the truth about the horse.

Sinon wept and claimed that an oracle had ordered the Greeks to sacrifice him to appease the gods and secure a fair wind home. He said that Calchas had refused to speak for fifteen days, then named Sinon as the victim after Odysseus bribed him. Sinon claimed that he had escaped from prison and hidden while the Greeks sailed away. He said they had built the horse as a gift for Pallas Athena, because they had angered her by stealing an image that had fallen from heaven. The horse, he claimed, had been made too large for the Trojans to bring inside their city. If they destroyed it, Athena would turn her anger against Troy. If they brought it inside, it might win her favour.

The Trojans believed Sinon. They debated what to do with the horse. Some wanted to throw it from the rocks, and others wanted to burn it. The opinion that it should be dedicated to Athena prevailed. They broke down part of the city wall and dragged the horse into Troy. They then feasted, believing the war had ended. The Greeks hidden inside waited until the appointed time, while the fleet returned. They opened the horse and joined the attack, enabling the Greeks to sack the city.