by Joshua Greene

Created on: April 21, 2009   Last Updated: April 22, 2009

The Trojan War has been a subject of debate for quite a long time. No one is precisely sure whether the Trojan War was an actual historical event, or one of the greatest stories ever told. However you view it, there is one undeniable fact: it still influences and spurs individuals' imaginations everyday. In the Trojan War, the Achaeans (a group of people from a specific region in Greece) went to war with the city of Troy. This was due to the king of Troy and the wife of the king of Sparta. From there we all know the story. There is lots of war and eventually the Achaeans take over Troy and destroy the Trojan military after implementing the plan known as the Trojan horse. They built this giant hollow horse and stationed soldiers inside it, waiting for the Trojans to bring the gift into their city and eventually dedicate to the goddess Athena. The soldiers snuck out, killed the guards, and massacred the city of Troy.

Now that our history/literature lesson is over with, let's take an actual look at what the Trojan war has brought to popular culture today. Firstly, one of the characters of this story, Achilles, is responsible for the phrase "Achilles heel" or "Achilles tendon". He was an almost invulnerable soldier. His only weak spot was his heel. He was shot by an arrow in the area now know as the Achilles tendon. Achilles heel is a term often-time used to describe a weakness, despite obvious strengths.

Arguably the biggest impact of all that the Trojan War has had on pop culture however, is the Trojan horse. The Trojan horse is used to imply anything that looks innocent, but is dangerous or can be harmful. In computer terms, it is a program/virus that looks benign, but is actually programmed with malicious intent to harm your computer.

We also see that in 2004 the movie Troy was released, based on the stories in Homer's writings and the Trojan War, where Brad Pitt plays the famous Achilles. There are constantly shows based on the Trojan War and Trojan horse on the Discovery and History channels. There was also a Mythbusters episode based on it as well. We also see that there are many other uses of the Trojan horse in pop culture. A quick search on Wikipedia shows us multiple pop culture references to the famed horse, including plenty of bands named after the story object and even a funny car that once held world records.

If the Trojan War actually occurred or not really isn't what is important. What is important that regardless of it's actual history, it is a story that has been passed through the ages and is still referred to today, most commonly through the Trojan horse.

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