BUT Achilles was no Trojan yet. After his friend Patroclus was slain by the Trojan hero Hector, loyal Achilles vowed vengeance on him and all Troy.
His vengeance on Hector came swiftly. None could withstand the wrath of Achilles, not even Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons. Yet Achilles fell at last, pierced through his vulnerable heel by a dart shot by Paris from the walls of Troy.
Odysseus took his place as the Greeks’ heroic leader, and at once showed his worthiness. He disguised himself as a beggar, and stole an image of Athene from her Temple within the besieged city itself, so fulfilling a prophecy of Troy’s fall. On his return, the Greeks packed up their encampment, as if the ten years of siege were over, and left at the gates of Troy what seemed a fitting apology to Athene: a vast wooden sculpture of a warhorse.*
Priam was touched, and brought it within the walls of Troy. He paid dearly for that mistake.
* In Virgil’s Aeneid, Trojan hero Aeneas recalled the bitter arguments over what to do with the wooden horse, and Laocoön famously warned them to beware Greeks bearing gifts. Unfortunately, they credited the Greeks with being much less crafty than they were. See ‘Beware Greeks Bearing Gifts’.