The story of the Trojan Horse occurred in 1250 BC.

In the southern part of Greece lived a group of people called the Mycenaeans.

They borrowed the ways of the Minoans.

There was a prince named Paris who lived in the city of Troy, which is across the sea from Greece.

Legend says that Paris was asked to judge a beauty contest between 3 goddesses. He chose Aphrodite

As a reward, Aphrodite promised Paris the most beautiful woman in the world. He traveled to Greece and met a woman named Helen.

Supposedly, Paris and Helen fell in love, eloped and moved back to Troy.

The problem with this story, is that Helen was already the wife of Menelaus, the king in Sparta. He was furious and humiliated that they captured his wife. He asked his brother to go to war with him to get his wife back.

They came up with a plan of presenting the Trojans with a magnificent horse.

The Horse was huge and was delivered right up to their gates of the city.

The Trojans eventually opened the gates and rolled the horse inside.

They had a great celebration around the horse because they thought that the Greeks had given up.

It was a scam though. After the party was over, in the middle of the night---dozens of Greek soldiers who had been hiding in the wooden horse climbed out the trap door.

They opened the gates to the city and let more soldiers in----they burned down the city of Troy—conquering it.

Paris was killed in battle and Helen eventually got his wife back and took her back to Greece.

A man named Homer, who lived hundred of years after the Trojan War, wrote this story for us. His story was called The Illiad.