The Trojan War: Pride

One of the oldest stories that has survived to 2016 is the story of the fall of Troy, but more specifically, the Trojan horse. Everyone knows the story.  The Greeks snuck into the city in a giant wooden horse and defeated the Trojans.  There's a little more to the story than that, though.

I'll start off with some context.  Queen Helen of Sparta eloped (or was abducted, historians debate over this) with Prince Paris of Troy.  (It should be noted that Cassandra, princess of Troy, had visions all the time of Paris bringing tragedy to the city literally since he was born, but nobody ever listened to her)  Menelaus, Helen's husband, was furious and asked his brother, Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, to invade Troy.  Agamemnon, a hot-head who was itching to go to war with Troy, readily agreed and brought along impressive fighters such as Odysseus and Achilles.  He also sacrificed his seven-year-old daughter to the Gods to secure a victory, but I digress.

The Trojan War had been going on for ten years with no visible end in sight.  The Greeks devised a plan to take the city by surprise.  Epeius, a Greek carpenter and boxer, constructed the horse.  They then pretended to leave the war and sail back across the Aegean Sea.  They actually sailed to an island close to Troy called Tenedos.  The Greeks left behind a soldier named Sinon who was pretending to be a misfit soldier left behind by the other Greeks.  He explained to the Trojans that the horse was in fact a gift for the goddess Athena and it wasn't a surrender token for the Trojans.  The Trojans decided that they were the winners and didn't have to listen to what the loser Greeks told them, so they rolled the horse into the city as a trophy.  At night, the Greek soldiers climbed out of the horse and unlocked the city gates to let the rest of the Greek army into Troy.  As they say, the rest is history.

One human trait that is undoubtedly displayed in this tale is pride.  The Trojans were exceedingly prideful when they thought they won the war.  This is ultimately what led to the downfall of Troy.  Pride is a trait that humans still exhibit today, which one can see in modern day examples such as people getting into fights over their favorite sports team (perhaps the Pitt-Penn State rivalry?) or when someone says offensive things about another person, nationality or area of the world in defense of their own country.  Obviously these modern day examples of pride aren't as devastating as costing your city a war, but they are still very present in our society today.