According to Greek mythology, the Trojan War lasted ten years. The conflict began after Paris of Troy took Helen, the wife of Menelaus, to Troy. Menelaus’s brother Agamemnon then gathered Greek forces to recover her and attack the city.
The war is best known through later literary works, especially Homer’s Iliad, which covers only a short period near the end of the conflict. Other episodes appear in sources such as the Epic Cycle, Virgil’s Aeneid, and later Greek and Roman retellings.
The Greeks did not capture Troy through a straightforward assault. In the traditional story, they used the Trojan Horse during the tenth year. Greek warriors hid inside it while the rest of the army pretended to sail away, allowing the Trojans to bring the horse within the city walls.
Historians debate how much of the legend reflects a real Bronze Age conflict. Archaeological Troy was a real settlement, but the mythical ten-year war belongs to the traditional literary account.