Hello /r/askhistorians! In a recent AskReddit thread I seen a discussion where the Trojan Horse was a myth. This is news to me. Is this credible? Does anyone have any input?
Here's the link for reference: http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/2wv1xk/what_is_one_thing_you_thought_existed_but_it/coue0o2
May I point your attention to the FAQ articles on Troy:)
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/antiquity#wiki_the_trojan_war
and a link to the top comment discussion thread by /u/Alot_hunter.
There are other people who are better equipped to answer this question, but I can give you the utter basics.
The Trojan War, as recorded by Homer, is a mythological story, but there is evidence that the main people groups did exist and engaged in a conflict. The city of Troy did exist and has been excavated, it was known in ancient times as Wilusa, and appears to have been destroyed (level VIIa) in around 1300-1190 BC. The Achaeans, mentioned in the epic, have been associated with the Ahhiyawa people, mentioned in several Hittite texts, as well as the Ekwesh, one of the Sea Peoples who were marauding in the eastern Mediterranean during that time. From these texts, it appears that there was a conflict between the Ahhiyawa (Achaeans) and the city of Wilusa (later Ilion, aka Troy). Troy level VIIa contains a destruction level from a war.
Therefore, the Trojan War as an event probably happened, as best we can tell, but the details as recorded in the Iliad (such as the Trojan Horse) are probably mythological and did not actually happen, but were a later embellishment as the story was passed down orally through generations.
Why not flip it around and ask "Is the story of the Trojan Horse credible?" The answer is no: Homer isn't a reliable historical source (and our main telling of it comes from Virgil whose way too late), hence why many thought for a long time Troy never existed.
It's pretty much impossible to prove either way
One possible explanation that I was exposed to recently was, based upon mutations of information being passed down, the Trojan horse could be an interpretation of a siege weapon. Assyrian art sources that are contemporary with Homer(6th-7th centuries BC) depict large siege weapons that could offer another possible explanation to the interpretation of a large wooden structure that caused the final downfall of Homer's mythological Troy. http://www.bible-archaeology.info/Lachish-battering.jpg
