According to a late tradition , how many men were hiding in the Trojan horse? Who was their leader?

"A thousand times three" comes to mind.I've no idea what scrap of doggerel that must come from If only we could defrag our memories, just think of all the useless half-learning and redundant bits we'd dispose of.

Who led them?'Pass'

Surely the Aeneid doesn't give a figure (not that many can remember much beyond 'Danaos dona ferentes', Greeks bearing gifts, and 'equo ne credite', don't trust the horse).

Your answer would have been good according to the "Little Iliad" (3000 + 2 spies in the mouth). But it's a much smaller number.

quote:

Originally posted by Mozart:
Your answer would have been good according to the "Little Iliad" (3000 + 2 spies in the mouth). But it's a much smaller number.

I dare say, if I'd thought, I'd have wondered at the time.It would need to be some horse.Of course the 3 times 1000 could be soldiers who were let in later.

Now it's down to guesswork.The ancients were fond of the numbers 9 and 7 ('by the nine gods he swore' and all that, for nine) As it's myth, how about 9 times 9 , 81 ?

The traditional answer is less than 81 and has nothing to do with the number "9".

I was watching the movie last night with Bratt Pitt who played "Achilles" and Peter O'Toole who played the Troyan King. That's when I wondered how many soldiers hid in the horse.

According to an interesting article at absoluteastronomy.com, there were 40 men in the horse. The link gives the names and other data :

The Trojan Horse

Thank you, Dog, for that neat site! I hadn't read before that the horse may have been a siege engine.

Yes "40" it is , and the names of the men in the horse are at the bottom of your link. Odysseus was their leader. Also from "W". Thanx for the answer 'spit!