According to The Odyssey and other later historical and literary sources, the Mycenaean Greeks defeated the Trojans in their war to gain control of the strategic city of Troy thanks to an ingenious trick devised by the hero, Ulysses: they built a horse of 11 meter high wood, they introduced a select group of warriors inside and left it at the gates of the city.
The Trojans, curious, took the horse inside and when they least expected it they saw the Greek soldiers jump out of it, devastating the city and killing its inhabitants. The number and identity of the horse's occupants varies from source to source.
The Odyssey says it housed Achilles and his 99 men. Apollodorus puts the number of combatants at 50 , while Tzetzes wrote that there were 23, and names them. Finally, Fifth of Smyrna cites 29 names. Among them: Ulysses, Neoptólemo, Menelao, Esténelo, Diomedes, Filoctetes, Ánticlo, Menesteo, Toante, Polipetes, Ajax and Eurípilo.
