Trojan Horses

During the legendary time of King Arthur, Sir Bedevere had an idea to get back at the outrageous French, who had refused help in locating the Holy Grail.

Bedevere’s idea was genius! All of the Knights of the Round Table—elite special forces soldiers of their day—would hide inside of the large wooden rabbit they’d had built. Then, they’d wheel the rabbit right up to the French castle, where the French soldiers would bring the apparent gift inside.

Then, the knights would leap out, catching everyone inside by surprise!

“Not only by surprise, but totally unarmed!” Bedevere explained, as Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table watched the French bring the rabbit inside their castle.

This is an homage to the ancient story of the Trojan Horse. Virgil's epic poem The Aeneid explains that Odysseus, well known for his cunning and intelligence (like Bedevere in The Holy Grail), came up with the plan to construct a massive wooden horse.

Odysseus had his men leave a little note on the horse saying that it was an offering to Athena, goddess of wisdom and warfare. The Greeks wanted the Trojans to think they were ready to quit, so they had already pretended to abandon their siege of the city of Troy.

In spite of the warnings from their wisest advisors, the Trojans brought the hollow effigy inside. When the party was five sheets to the wind, the Greeks signaled for their ships to return, and once they had returned, the handful of elite soldiers hidden inside the rabbit horse leapt out, taking the Trojans by surprise and (potentially) also totally unarmed.

Today, the ancient and digital worlds are connected by this terminology.

When we talk about a Trojan horse, we mean a program file or an app that seems to be completely harmless, like something we would like to have. Our giant rabbits and horses are frequently games or movies, especially illegally downloaded ones.

Some apps can offer to do really great things for you, like save your battery life or clean up your phone’s systems. Email attachments, links sent to your phone, and even a physical USB drive can be a Trojan horse today. The one thing these traps all have in common is that they seem to be beneficial and harmless, and they rely on the user to let them in willingly.

Today, the legend of the Trojan rabbit horse transcends time. It warns us to remember that people can use tricks to deceive us, and that we can willingly allow something dangerous inside our metaphorical castle walls.

Be skeptical, Virgil seems to be saying to us. Watch out for gift horses!

What are some other types of Trojan horses, rabbits, or large wooden badgers you can recognize today as potential traps like this?