Sinon

Sinon was the Greek who let himself be captured by the Trojans and, by a false story, persuaded them to drag the Wooden Horse into their city. He is told in full in Virgil’s Aeneid, Book 2, and in Quintus of Smyrna’s Fall of Troy. He is not named in Homer, so he is not a character of the Odyssey.

Is Sinon in the Odyssey?

No. Sinon does not appear in Homer’s Odyssey, and he is not named in the Iliad either. Homer does speak of the Wooden Horse: Helen walks round it and calls to the hidden men in the voices of their wives (Odyssey 4.271–289), the bard Demodocus sings of how Odysseus, filled with warriors, was brought into the citadel by the Trojans themselves (Odyssey 8.492–520), and Odysseus’ shade later recalls the men inside (Odyssey 11.523–532). In none of these passages is the man who deceived the Trojans named.

• Where he does appear: Virgil, Aeneid 2.57–267; Quintus of Smyrna, Fall of Troy 12–14; the summary of the Epic Cycle in Apollodorus, Epitome 5.15 and 5.19; Hyginus, Fabulae 108
• Pausanias saw him in Polygnotus’ painting of the sack of Troy at Delphi, carrying off the body of the Trojan Laomedon (10.27.3)
• The beacon he lit was already in the lost epics of the Epic Cycle: a line of Lesches’ Little Iliad is quoted by an ancient commentator on Lycophron 344, and Proclus’ summary of Arctinus’ Sack of Ilium says Sinon got into the city by pretence and then raised the fire-signal to the Greeks

Who Was Sinon?

Family and Background

Sinon was one of the Greeks who fought at Troy. The early sources give no parentage for him. In the cover story he tells in Virgil, he is a poor man whose father sent him to the war when he was young as a companion and kinsman of Palamedes (Aeneid 2.81–93); that is the lie he tells the Trojans, and should not be taken as his real family. Later writers connected him with Sisyphus, which would make him a relative of Odysseus, but this belongs to late tradition and is not found in the texts above. No source gives him a wife, children, or a homecoming.

Name and Meaning

The Greek verb sinomai means “to harm”, and the name is often connected with it. The link is a modern explanation; no ancient author states it.

How Is Sinon Described?

The ancient poets describe Sinon through his actions rather than his looks. In Virgil, Trojan shepherds drag him to Priam with his hands bound behind his back; he stands “trembling” among jeering Trojans and weeps (Aeneid 2.57–76). His only weapons are a rehearsed story, tears and an oath. Virgil’s Aeneas says that such “snares and the craft of perjured Sinon” won over those whom neither Diomedes nor Achilles, nor ten years, nor a thousand ships had conquered (Aeneid 2.195–198). In Quintus, the Trojans cut off his ears and nose and burn him, yet he keeps repeating the same tale; the poet says Hera breathed endurance into him (Fall of Troy 12).

A Greek in the Trojan War

For ten years the Greeks could not take Troy by force. In the Epic Cycle account summarised by Apollodorus, Odysseus devised the Wooden Horse and suggested it to the builder Epeius (Epitome 5.14). Homer too names Epeius as its maker, with Athena’s help (Odyssey 8.492–495).

Sinon and the Trojan Horse

Odysseus’ Plan

The best Greek warriors hid inside the hollow horse, with Odysseus as their leader and an inscription on it dedicating it to Athena for the Greeks’ safe return. The rest of the army burned their tents and sailed to the island of Tenedos, leaving Sinon behind to light a beacon (Apollodorus, Epitome 5.14–15). Virgil says the Greeks “falsely” claimed the horse was vowed to Heaven for a safe return (Aeneid 2.13–20).

Why Was Sinon Left Behind?

Sinon had two tasks: to be found by the Trojans and explain the horse, and to signal the fleet at night. In Quintus he volunteers when the other Greeks hesitate, saying he will carry the work out even if he is tortured or thrown living into fire (Fall of Troy 12). In the Epitome he is the one who lights the beacon, on the tomb of Achilles (5.19); in Virgil the signal is a torch raised from the king’s ship, and Sinon opens the horse and lets the Greeks out (Aeneid 2.254–259).

Sinon Stays Behind

In Virgil’s version Sinon allows himself to be seized. In Quintus, the Trojans find him by the horse and torture him, but he does not change his story, and Athena, who is angry with Laocoon, makes the Trojans pity him and lead him into the city in a friendly way (Fall of Troy 12).

Sinon’s Lie

The False Story

Virgil’s Sinon tells Priam that Odysseus hated him because he was the kinsman of Palamedes, whom Odysseus had caused to be put to death by false testimony after he opposed the war. When the Greeks wanted to sail home but the winds held them, Apollo’s oracle demanded a human life, Odysseus pushed the seer Calchas to name a victim, and Calchas named Sinon. He says he escaped before the sacrifice and hid in the marsh all night (Aeneid 2.77–144). Priam orders his chains removed and treats him as a friend (Aeneid 2.145–151). In Quintus, he claims he was chosen for sacrifice through Odysseus and escaped, clinging to the horse’s feet (Fall of Troy 12).

The Horse as a Gift to Athena

Sinon’s key lie concerns the horse. He says the Greeks built it to atone to Athena for the theft of the Palladium by Diomedes and Odysseus, and that Calchas made it huge so that the Trojans could not take it through their gates. If the Trojans harmed it, Troy would be destroyed; if they brought it into the city, Asia would one day march on Greece instead (Aeneid 2.162–194). Quintus likewise has him say the horse was made on Calchas’ advice to appease Athena for the stolen image (Fall of Troy 12).

The Warnings Ignored

Laocoon’s Warning

Laocoon warned the Trojans that the horse hid a Greek ambush, and in Virgil he hurled a spear at its side, which rang hollow (Aeneid 2.40–56). Two serpents then came over the sea and killed him and his sons (Aeneid 2.199–227). In Apollodorus’ summary, Apollo sent the serpents, who killed his sons (Epitome 5.18); in Quintus, Athena blinds Laocoon and sends the serpents against his sons (Fall of Troy 12). In every version the Trojans took it as a sign supporting Sinon’s story.

Cassandra’s Prophecy

Cassandra also said that an armed force was inside the horse; Apollodorus names her along with Laocoon as the doubters (Epitome 5.17), and Virgil says the Trojans never believed her because of the god’s decree (Aeneid 2.246–247).

The Fall of Troy

The Horse Enters the City

The Trojans pulled the horse into Troy. In Virgil they breach part of the wall to bring it in, and they drag it up to the citadel (Aeneid 2.234–249). In Quintus, Epeius had laid smooth rollers beneath its feet (Fall of Troy 12). Apollodorus says the Trojans debated burning it, throwing it down a cliff, or keeping it as an offering, and decided to keep it and feast (Epitome 5.17).

The Night Attack

While the Trojans slept, the Greek fleet sailed from Tenedos. In Apollodorus, Sinon lit the beacon (Epitome 5.19). In Virgil, Sinon opened the horse and the Greeks came out (Aeneid 2.254–267). In Quintus, Sinon lifted a torch to show the Greeks and called softly to the men inside, who came out, while Sinon’s heart beat in fear that the Trojans might see (Fall of Troy 13). The Greeks opened the gates and let in the rest of the army (Apollodorus, Epitome 5.20).

What Happened to Sinon After the Fall of Troy?

Our sources do not tell of his later life. Quintus says that at the Greeks’ victory feast the men praised Sinon above all for the torment he had endured and gave him gifts of honour (Fall of Troy 14). In Polygnotus’ painting at Delphi, Sinon is carrying off the body of the Trojan Laomedon (Pausanias 10.27.3). No source records his death or homecoming.

Sinon’s Role

A Servant of Odysseus’ Strategy

Odysseus is the mind behind the Wooden Horse, and Sinon is the man who made it believable. In Virgil he blames Odysseus for his own supposed persecution, and the lie rests on the Trojans’ hatred of Odysseus (Aeneid 2.90–104).

Hero or Traitor?

To the Greeks Sinon was brave; Quintus calls his endurance heroic and has him honoured. To the Trojans, and in Virgil’s telling, he is the liar who ruined the city: Aeneas says that from one crime one may learn the character of all the Greeks (Aeneid 2.65–66).

Misconceptions and Lesser-Known Facts

Sinon Did Not Build the Trojan Horse

The horse was built by Epeius (Homer, Odyssey 8.492–495; Apollodorus, Epitome 5.14), and the plan is usually credited to Odysseus. Sinon stayed outside and persuaded the Trojans to take it in.

The Trojan Horse Is Not Fully Told in the Iliad

The Iliad ends before the fall of Troy. Homer refers to the Wooden Horse in the Odyssey, but the story of Sinon comes from the lost epics of the Epic Cycle (the Little Iliad of Lesches and the Sack of Troy of Arctinus) as summarised later, and from Virgil and Quintus.

Sinon’s Story Was Carefully Designed

Virgil’s Sinon mixes real grievances — Palamedes’ death, the theft of the Palladium, the anger of Athena — with a lie, so that the false story rested on events the Trojans already knew about.

Sinon Sources

Virgil, Aeneid 2.13–267; Quintus of Smyrna, Fall of Troy 12–14; Apollodorus, Epitome 5.14–21; Homer, Odyssey 4.271–289, 8.492–520, 11.523–532; Hyginus, Fabulae 108; Pausanias 10.27.3; Lesches (Little Iliad) as quoted in the scholion on Lycophron 344.

See Also: Trojan War, Trojan Horse, Odysseus, Epeius, Athena, Laocoon, Cassandra, Priam, Palamedes