3098: Trojan Horse

Trojan Horse

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Title text: Ultimately, history would imperfectly record the story of the Foal of Troy.

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Explanation

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This comic presents a brief retelling of the Trojan Horse story, the climactic event of the legendary Trojan War, one of the best-known epics of ancient Greece and Rome.

The joke, spelled out in the title text, is that the Trojan Horse story's origin is mundane. The gift to the Trojans by the (supposedly) departing Greek army, we are told, was a normal-sized, living mare, which promptly and unexpectedly dropped a foal. "History" expanded the tale until the normal-sized live horse became a colossal wooden statue that "dropped" a commando unit of some 40 Greek soldiers, who opened the gates of Troy to the main Greek force (who had sailed back under the cover of darkness), with disastrous consequences for Troy. The name of the event became transmuted (for the purposes of a pun) from the "Foal of Troy" to the "Fall of Troy". Fall (∏τώση) and Foal (∏ουλάρι) begin with the same letter in Greek and are spelled even more similarly, as well as being near homophones, in English. This would correspond with history exaggerating a supposed attack upon the food supply into the fall of the entire city. Of course, in reality, people are willing to feed horses because horses can accomplish useful tasks but only if they haven't died of starvation, and the people in the comic do not seem disturbed by the mare's appetite, only the foal's.

Based on how Cueball calls the offspring an "inner horse" instead of a foal (the term for a child horse), the fact that he interprets the foal's interest in oats as an attack upon Troy's food supply even though all horses need to eat but are nonetheless considered useful by humans, and his overall surprise that the mare gave birth, it seems that he does not know very much about horses. Calling a foal an "inner horse" would be analogous to calling a baby an "inner human", thus reflecting a lack of knowledge of placental mammalian reproduction similar to 441: Babies.

The debate in the comic, about the mission of the "Foal of Troy" and its impact on the city, reflects the debate in the Trojan Horse legend about the purpose of the horse statue and whether it was safe to accept it. The consequence of accepting the "Foal of Troy", a minor assault on the city's oat store, is accepted with indignation in the comic. In the legend, the potential consequences of accepting the horse statue were rejected or ignored until after it was too late. This is the etymology that caused the story to lend its name to the act of trying to smuggle something unwanted past people's notice by hiding it within something larger and more innocuous, particularly computer malware.

It is not made clear whether the gifter of the horse knew of/suspected the pregnancy or whether they'd have even chosen to hand it over under different circumstances. However, it is consistent with the story, and with the "Greeks bearing gifts" trope that originated with it, that the Greeks intentionally gifted a gravid mare to annoy the (in the "mundane" version otherwise victorious) Trojans. Surprise foals, where a mare is purchased with a hitherto unknown pregnancy, actually occur. The pregnancy is typically excused as mundane weight gain, up until the point where a foal is discovered with its mother in the morning. Horses with rounder builds, like some pony breeds, are known for maintaining undetected pregnancies. The reason a surprise foal might be salient for the comic, beyond the "Foal of Troy" pun, is the non-trivial costs of horse ownership, which can amount to hundreds or thousands of dollars per month. Food costs are part of (but not all of) this, as the comic touches on.

Archaeological evidence of a military conquest of Troy during the Bronze Age, or even of a major war centered on the city, is lacking. Far better evidence exists for the destruction of several iterations of the city by earthquakes. It is not thought that these earthquakes were caused by horses. Possibly, the Trojan War legend arose as visitors attempted to explain the ruins of an earthquake-ravaged, deserted city. The "Foal of Troy" story, therefore, need not include a Greek conquest of Troy, or even a major military conflict with the Greeks.

Transcript

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[A horse is facing Cueball and Ponytail, who are standing in front of an entrance below a tower.]

[In an inset panel, Cueball is talking to Megan and Hairy.]

Cueball: When the Greeks departed, they left behind a horse as a gift.

[Hairbun is standing behind a horse, with Cueball standing in front.]

We took it as a gesture of peace, but it carried a secret payload.

[A smaller horse is standing behind the horse from previous panel, which is looking behind at it.]

One night, from within the horse, another, smaller horse emerged!

[Close-up on Cueball.]

Cueball: Our guards have been unable to determine the inner horse's objective, but it has begun to show an interest in our oats.

Off-panel voice 1: An attack on Troy's food supply!

Off-panel voice 2: How dare they!?

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Discussion

i want the second revision of this page to be framed on my wall somewhere 2601:647:8500:1E09:D00F:A8A5:D9DB:2886 03:13, 5 June 2025 (UTC)

This version? :-D --Kynde (talk) 12:38, 5 June 2025 (UTC)

I wonder if it's worth mentioning that days prior, Ukraine pulled off a massive real life Trojan Horse type attack with disguised shipping containers and drones to destroy Russia's bomber fleets. 2A00:23C5:186:6501:C5ED:C715:4B8E:A315 06:11, 5 June 2025 (UTC)

xkcd doesn't really reference current events unless it's science related or a massive deal 2601:647:8500:1E09:EF7:48CC:294B:D785 06:13, 5 June 2025 (UTC)

this page might be too wordy tbh 2601:647:8500:1E09:EF7:48CC:294B:D785 06:13, 5 June 2025 (UTC)

Might!?82.13.184.33 08:59, 5 June 2025 (UTC)

One person's "trim" is another's "missing a lot of vital and interesting subtext". And even if I thought I fully understood the comic on first glance, others may have intuited some meaning that I missed, just as they could seemingly be unaware of what I thought was important to describe.

The fight between loquacious verbosity and laconic simplicity is rarely clear-cut, but I'd err on there being too much ('obvious' bits can be skimmed) rather than too little (unanswered questions, or even unasked questions...). Even that 'sweet spot' of "slightly too much, but at least it isn't less" is arguable, of course. 82.132.234.190 13:59, 5 June 2025 (UTC)

There's verbosity, and then there's an entirely tangential essay on the history of the horse.82.13.184.33 14:10, 5 June 2025 (UTC)

I'm with 82.132.234.190. Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. Or more trim: better to be looking at it than looking for it. In other news I'm glad the site is back, I couldn't reach it at all yesterday and I had started mourning. --DW 2607:FB91:1B37:9970:5459:BE42:2A5B:3D54 14:49, 5 June 2025 (UTC)

But they were all of them deceived, for another horse was made … — SapphireHarmony 16:08 5 June 2025 (UTC)
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