The “Wooden” Horse on the Athenian Acropolis

by Mary R. Lefkowitz

Hesperia, Volume 89, Issue 3
Page(s): 581-591
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.89.3.0581
Year: 2020
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ABSTRACT:

Literary and historical sources can help us to understand better why a colossal bronze statue of the Trojan Horse was set up in the Sanctuary of Artemis on the Athenian Acropolis. They suggest that this statue (known as the “wooden” horse) could have been set up several years before 415 B.C., when we first hear of it in surviving ancient sources. It appears to have served as a representation of Athenian hegemony in the eastern Mediterranean by celebrating (and even exaggerating) the role that Athens played in the conquest of Troy.