After Hector's death, the war went on.

Paris, the one who had started it all by taking Helen, was still alive. And fate gave him a chance at revenge. One day, Achilles was fighting near the gates of Troy. Paris, who was a skilled archer, took careful aim, and Apollo guided his arrow. It flew over the battlefield and struck Achilles in the heel — the only vulnerable spot on his body.

Achilles fell. The greatest warrior of Greece, defeated by an arrow in the heel. Thetis's prophecy had come true: Achilles won eternal glory, but died young, before the walls of Troy.

The Greeks quarreled over Achilles' divine armor. Odysseus and Ajax both wanted it, and the generals voted: Odysseus won.

Ajax, humiliated, lost his mind with rage. He attacked a flock of sheep believing they were soldiers and, when he came to himself and saw what he had done, died of shame and grief. So, in a short time, two of the greatest Greek heroes were gone.

And Troy still stood. Ten years of war, and the walls built by the gods remained unbeaten.

The Greeks were exhausted and thought only of going home. They told one another that those walls would never fall.

It was then that Odysseus, the cleverest of the Greeks, had an idea.

"We cannot win by strength," he said to the gathered leaders. "So we will win by cunning. We will build a giant wooden horse, as big as a house. Our best warriors will hide inside it, and the rest of the army will pretend to give up and sail home. The Trojans will think they have won and haul the horse into the city as a trophy. And at night... we attack from within."

It was a risky, daring plan. But it might work.

The carpenter Epeius built the horse. It was enormous, all of wood, decorated to look like an offering to the gods, with a hollow space hidden in its belly.

Odysseus chose the best warriors: himself, Menelaus, Diomedes, Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, and others — a few dozen men, in the oldest tellings. They all climbed inside. The rest of the army boarded the ships and sailed away, hiding the fleet behind the island of Tenedos.

On the beach, only two things remained: the giant wooden horse, and a single man, a Greek named Sinon.

At dawn, the Trojans saw something unbelievable: the Greek fleet was gone, and the beach was empty.

"The war is over! We have won!"

For the first time in ten years, the gates opened and the people poured out. And there stood the horse, immense, with an inscription carved upon it: "For Athena, an offering from the Greeks, for a safe voyage home." The Trojans looked at one another, not knowing what to do with it.

Then they found Sinon, the Greek left behind. He begged them not to kill him — and all of it was part of Odysseus's plan.

"Why did the Greeks abandon you?" the Trojans asked.

"They wanted to sacrifice me to the gods, for a safe voyage," Sinon lied, with well-rehearsed tears. "But I escaped. I hate them."

"And the horse?"

"It is an offering to Athena. They built it big on purpose, so that you could not bring it inside your city. Because if the horse enters Troy, the city will be protected by the gods forever."

It was exactly what the Trojans wanted to hear.

But not everyone believed him.

Laocoon, a Trojan priest, pushed his way through the crowd.

"Trojans, do not trust the Greeks, even when they bring gifts! This is a trap."

He hurled his spear at the horse. The point pierced the wood, and from inside came a muffled sound, like weapons clashing. The Trojans hesitated.

Then something terrible happened. Two giant sea serpents rose from the waves, sent by the gods who favored the Greeks. They slid up the beach, passed everyone else by, and went straight for Laocoon and his two sons.

The serpents coiled around the three of them and squeezed. Laocoon fought with all his strength to save his sons, but the creatures were divine, and there was no beating them. Father and sons died there, before everyone's eyes.

The Trojans took it as a sign: Laocoon must have blasphemed against the sacred offering, and the gods had punished him. The horse, they thought, truly was sacred.

But there was someone else who knew the truth: Cassandra, daughter of King Priam. Apollo had given her the gift of prophecy; when she refused the god's love, he added a curse — Cassandra would see the future, but no one would ever believe her.

"Father, Trojans, it is a trap!" Cassandra cried. "There are Greeks inside the horse. Burn this horse, before it is too late."

No one believed her. They thought she was mad.

Ignoring Cassandra, the Trojans decided to bring the horse inside. But it was so large it would not fit through the gates. So they did something fatal: they tore down a section of their own wall — the very wall that had protected them for ten years.

With ropes, songs, and celebration, they dragged the horse through the streets to the central square, a trophy of victory. That night, all of Troy feasted. They drank wine, they danced, they sang. The war was over, they believed. At last they could sleep in peace.

Late in the night, while everyone slept soundly, Sinon opened a hidden hatch in the horse. From inside, Odysseus and his warriors climbed down in silence.

They lit torches — the agreed signal. The Greek fleet, waiting behind the island, saw the lights and sailed back at full speed. The warriors from the horse ran to the gates of Troy and opened them from within.

And the Greek army came in.

Then began the sack of Troy. The Greeks, hardened by ten years of war, showed little mercy.

They set the city aflame. They killed the men and enslaved the women and children. Old King Priam tried to fight, though his strength was gone, and was slain by Neoptolemus beside the altar of the gods. Little Astyanax, son of Hector and Andromache, was thrown from the walls, because the Greeks feared he would grow up to avenge his father. Andromache was carried off into slavery. And Hecuba, the queen of Troy, watched all her children die.

It was a long, dark night, of which the poets would speak forever.

In the midst of the burning city, Menelaus at last found Helen — the woman over whom the war had begun, ten years before. He came in with sword drawn, determined to kill her.

But when he saw her, she was still the most beautiful woman in the world. Helen wept and begged forgiveness, saying it had not been her fault, that it was Aphrodite, that it was divine magic. Menelaus lowered his sword. He could not do it. Some versions say it was weakness; others, that the old love awoke. Menelaus took Helen back to Sparta, and there they lived together the rest of their lives.

By dawn, Troy, the proud city that had held out for ten years, lay in ruins. Flames devoured the palaces, and the mourning of the survivors echoed among the stones.

The old prophecy was fulfilled: Paris had brought about the destruction of Troy — not with an army, but with a choice. The Greeks had won, but at what cost? So many heroes dead: Achilles, Ajax, Patroclus, and many more. And for several of the victors, the journey home would prove even harder than the war. The story of Odysseus, who would take ten more years to see his island again, is told in the Odyssey.

And so ended the Trojan War. A war that began with a golden apple, three vain goddesses, a reckless prince, and a forbidden love — and ended with a city destroyed, thousands dead, and families broken, but also with stories that won eternal life.

Homer turned that war into poetry, in the Iliad and the Odyssey, and for three thousand years the world has told and retold it. To this day, when someone speaks of a "Trojan horse," everyone understands: it is the beautiful gift that hides a danger inside.