April 24, 1184 B.C. is the traditional date assigned as the delivery of the Trojan Horse. Hopefully you know the traditional tale and learned all about this in either your history or literature classes or both. After a protracted and unsuccessful siege of the city of Troy, the Greeks attacking it seemed one morning to have melted away and left a gift of a giant wooden statue of a horse in apparent tribute and congrats to the town. The relieved citizens wheeled the very nice gift into the city walls and proceeded to party hearty as only the Trojans could and danced and drank the night away.

Unbeknownst to them a cadre of Greek soldiers were secreted in the wooden horse and were being very, very quiet. As the partiers steadily passed out and had taken their last Ubers home, the Greeks slipped out of their faux gift and opened the city gates. This allowed the Greek army to slip in and much mayhem, murdering and marauding ensued. Though the story is more than three thousand years old it has had a lasting impact in our modern times.

My favorite take on it was in the classic “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” If you know it you are chuckling right now and if not you should look it up. Also common is the cyber concept of invasive programs that get into your system disguised as something innocent and then let out hidden soldiers to cause mayhem, murdering, and marauding in your computer system appropriately named a Trojan Horse. Whether true or not (and it is still debated by historians) it is an excellent and classic tale.