When the war would not end by siege, Odysseus built the wooden horse; the Trojans dragged it within the walls, and in the night the Achaeans poured out — Priam slain at the altar, the city burning, and Aeneas carrying his father Anchises toward the mountains.1
The wooden horse
The nested episode on the Wooden Horse tells how Odysseus conceived the stratagem after Epeius had built it with Athena's help — the doughtiest warriors hidden inside, Sinon left with a lying tale, Cassandra and Laocoon warning in vain, and the Trojans dragging the offering within the walls while the fleet lay off Tenedos.2
The city taken
At night the horse opened and the warriors descended. Neoptolemus slew Priam at the altar of Zeus Herkeios; Menelaus searched the palace for Helen. The Trojans fell in their houses; fire consumed the city Apollo and Poseidon had once built for Laomedon.3
Deiphobus slain⚖
During the siege Helen had been given to Deiphobus, brother of Paris. Apollodorus says Menelaus slew Deiphobus at the sack and led Helen to the ships. Hyginus counts Helen among the women who killed their own husbands, naming Deiphobus son of Priam as her victim — the same death, two agents.4
Aeneas escapes
Aeneas son of Anchises and Aphrodite carried his lame father on his shoulders and led his son Ascanius from the burning city — the nested episode on Aeneas to Italy tells the westward wandering and the Latin destiny Apollodorus summarises in the Nostoi.5
The coda on the shore
Before the fleet could sail, the victors sacrificed to all the gods — threw Astyanax from the tower and slaughtered Polyxena on Achilles' grave when his ghost demanded the maiden as his share of the spoils. The full rite and the division of captives live in the nested episode on the Thracian shore.6
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