Glorious Horse

The red tent was crammed with people, the small table covered by a map. The aggravated shouts and composed generals all swarming the slab of wood.

Menelaus stood at the head of the table, his imposing stature watching over the bickering kings like a stone statue, his frizzy hair seemed chiselled the reddish brown shining under the faded light.

"We should be storming the walls!" the cry sounded through the room, the man slamming his hand onto the table; "We already killed their strongest warrior, they have nothing!"

The room was silent, his commanding voice puncturing the tense, thick air.

"Yea, they only have the strongest walls ever, walls made by the gods. What pray tell is your genius solution to that? Bang on the gates and hope they don't slaughter us with arrows?"

"We should be challenging them to a war, face to face. It is the proper way to fight!"

Cheers sounded through the room, more chiming up

"The cowards should face us,"

"Yeah, hiding behind their walls for so long! It's a disgrace to warfare."

The second man stood up, his head held in his hands. "Just because this war was started for a stupid reason does not mean it should be ended with an even worse idea, they have no reason to come out of those walls, would you? We have armies from all over Greece, and this was started over a woman? What about this is normal warfare, proper warfare? We should be thinking of a way to get inside, not a way to get them outside, it's as Nestor said, we killed their strongest warrior, they do not stand a chance against even a fraction of us."

Mahon stood up from his chair, He had been sitting in boredom, his head resting on his fist.

"First of all, YOU didn't kill anyone, I did. Therefore, I should have some say in how we win, and…"

"Odysseus"

"Odysseus is right, we can't expect them to come out. We could keep up this war of attrition for a few more centuries. Which I would be fine with, However you're all mortal and by the time this war is done both Menelaus and Helen would be dead already. However, Odysseus is also right, we have no way to get into their city short of knocking."

"So there is nothing?"

The loud man called nectar pushed towards Mahon,

"We are the mighty Greeks, we should be able to knock down the walls even if it was made by the gods."

There was an awkward silence, no one could take either side, all unhappy that Mahon was right and unable to back up Nestor

"No he's right, we have no choice but to surrender, but not all of us. A few years ago I was playing a game in the Parthenon, In this game I found that the best way to capture someone's king is to fake a retreat. In this you can lure the king out and take him, Or in this case, lure them to take us in.

Think for a minute, we are attacking the City of Poseidon, no? It wouldn't be strange of us to leave an offering when we retreat.

A horse for our safe travels and when we are gone the trojans will celebrate, and take the giant horse into their city as a token of their victory. However, only some of us will go the rest will stay in that horse, waiting. Until the trojans take this glorious statue into their city, they will party and sleep as all men do after winning a war, and then we will strike."