Note the highlights of Aeneas' story of the Greek conquest of Troy. Be sure you can relate in some detail the role of Ulysses. Who was Laocoon? What happened to Priam?. Ancient History

Aeneas tells how ten years before, the Greeks constructed a giant wooden horse with a hollow belly that concealed Greek soldiers who were fully armed while the other Greek soldiers hid some distance from Troy. The Trojans meet a Greek youth named Sinon, who relates the origin of the horse and how the

Greeks came to possess it. He explains that the horse was an offering from the goddess Minerva, who sided with the Greeks after the desecration of one of her temples by Ulysses. Sinon claims that if the horse is damaged in any way, Troy will be destroyed but if the Trojans install the horse within their city walls, Troy will be victorious against the Greeks with Minerva on their side. After Sinon finishes speaking, two giant serpents rise out of the sea and devour the Trojan priest Laocoon and his two sons for hurling spears and the statue. The Trojans wheel the horse into Troy and as night falls, Sinon opens the horse's belly, unleashing the Greek soldiers. They kill King Priam and his son while Aeneas escapes.