a peace-offering to Minerva, that the Greeks might have a
safe return to their homes. In the belly of this there hid themselves
certain of the bravest of the chiefs, as Menelaues, and Ulysses, and
Thoas the AEtolian, and Machaon the great physician, and Pyrrhus, son
of Achilles (but Achilles himself was dead, slain by Paris, Apollo
helping, even as he was about to take the city), and others also, and
with them Epeius himself. But the rest of the people made as if they
had departed to their homes; only they went not further than Tenedos,
which was an island near to the coast.

Great joy was there in Troy when it was noised abroad that the men of
Greece had departed. The gates were opened, and the people went forth
to see the plain and the camp. And one said to another as they went,
"Here they set the battle in array, and there were the tents of the
fierce Achilles, and there lay the ships." And some stood and marveled
at the great peace-offering to Minerva, even the horse of wood. And
Thymoetes, who was one of the elders of the city, was the first who
advised that it should be brought within the walls and set in the
citadel. Now whether he gave this counsel out of a false heart or
because the gods would have it so, no man knows. But Capys, and others
with him, said that it should be drowned in water or burned with fire,
or that men should pierce it and see whether there were aught within.
And the people were divided, some crying one thing and some another.
Then came forward the priest Laocooen, and a great company with him,
crying, "What madness is this? Think ye that the men of Greece are
indeed departed or that there is any profit in their gifts? Surely
there are armed men in this mighty horse; or haply they have made it
that they may look down upon our walls. Touch it not, for as for these
men of Greece, I fear them, even though they bring gifts in their
hands."

And as he spake he cast his great spear at the horse, so that it
sounded again. But the gods would not that Troy should be saved.

Meanwhile there came certain shepherds dragging with them one whose
hands were bound behind his back. He had come forth to them, they
said, of his own accord when they were in the field. And first the
young men gathered about him mocking him, but when he cried aloud,
"What place is left for me, for the Greeks suffer me not to live and
the men of Troy cry for vengeance upon me?" they rather pitied him,
and bade him speak and say