427. The Trojan Horse

Some YouTubers built a Trojan Horse and used it to attempt unauthorized entry into a screening of "The Odyssey."

"The Odyssey" is a film based on the poem by Homer. The poem is about Odysseus. Odysseus is the man who invented the Trojan Horse. He is the protagonist. The film is about him. The YouTubers built a replica of his invention and used it to attempt to gain access to a movie about the man who invented it.

The Trojan Horse worked exactly once. The Greeks concealed soldiers inside a large wooden structure, presented it as a gift to the city of Troy, and waited for the Trojans to wheel it inside. Then the Greeks came out and destroyed the city. The strategy succeeded. Scholars date this victory to approximately the 12th century BCE. The success rate of the Trojan Horse, in documented human history, is one hundred percent.

(This information was available to the YouTubers. It has been available for approximately three thousand years. The poem is one of the most widely read works in Western literature. It was assigned in schools across the world for centuries. The city does not exist anymore.)

There is a possible explanation for the discrepancy in outcomes, which is that the Trojans were under the impression they had won the war. They believed the Greeks had left. They brought the horse inside themselves because they wanted it. Theater employees do not want the horse. This is a materially different situation. This distinction does not appear to have been considered during the planning phase.

The Greeks had approximately ten years to plan the original operation. They had a fleet. They had Odysseus, who is specifically described in the poem as very clever. The YouTubers had YouTube.

Homer is not available for comment. The film, however, is still screening.