In Greek mythology, Odysseus devised the plan to use the Trojan Horse. The Greeks used the enormous wooden horse as a deceptive strategy during the Trojan War, allowing selected warriors to enter Troy secretly.
According to the tradition, the Greeks built the horse and left it outside Troy while pretending to sail away. Greek soldiers hid inside it, while the spy Sinon persuaded the Trojans to bring the horse within their walls as an offering to Athena or as a sign that the Greeks had departed.
That night, the hidden warriors emerged and opened Troy’s gates to the returning Greek army. The city was then captured and destroyed in the traditional account. Homer’s Iliad does not narrate the horse’s use directly; later epic poetry and works such as Virgil’s Aeneid provide fuller versions.
Odysseus is associated with the plan because of his reputation for cunning. Achilles was already dead by the time the horse was used, and Agamemnon led the Greek expedition but was not normally credited with inventing the stratagem.