BEFORE YOU READ

Discuss with a partner and write M If you think each item is a myth and L if you think it s a legend.

REMEMBER: MYTH: a sacred story often involving supernatural creatures and people, concerning an explanation of the natural world. LEGEND: a narrative whose truth has not been proven, passed down through generations.

Unicorns St. George and the dragon

Hercules

Robin Hood The titans

Zeus Atlas holding the Earth.

Write about a myth from your country. ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________. THE TROJAN HORSE: FACT OR MYTH? One of the most ingenious combat strategies ever used was the episode involving the so-called Trojan horse during the war Greece waged against the Trojan king Priam. Such a strategy, however, may never have been put to use; it may just have been a myth. In fact, the Trojan War, as a romantic event, registered by poets and story-tellers such as Homer in the Iliad and Hyginus in his fable Equus Troianus, didn t actually happen: it s a mythic tale. The Trojan War had economic rather than romantic motives.

The tale goes like this: Paris, King Priam s nephew, kidnapped the beautiful Helen,who was married to Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The Greeks then started a war against Troy to take revenge against Paris. They besieged the city but ten years later the Spartans were still fighting

without success. So they devised new war machine, an enormous wooden horse. They filled its hollow belly with soldiers, left it at entrance to the city of Troy, as a present to the goddess Minerva, and pretended they had given up fighting.

The Trojans fell for the trick, took the horse into the city and spent that night drinking and celebrating their presumed victory. While they were all sleeping, the soldiers left the horse, opened the city s gates and let the Greek military in.

The real motive for the Trojan War, however, was that the king of Troy was charging tolls to Greek merchants and ships that crossed his domains. No one knows for sure whether or not the horse episode is true but, fact or myth, as a strategy to end a long and difficult war, it is indeed worthy of mention. READING FOR A PURPOSE Oganize the sentences according to what happened. The Greeks made a giant wooden horse. The Greeks got into the city of Troy. The Greeks took control of Troy. Helen was kidnapped by Paris. Trojan soldiers fell asleep after celebrating. The Greeks left the horse at the entrance of the city of Troy.

Complete the information with ideas from the text. FACTS -.The war between Troy and Greece. -.____________________________ -. ____________________________ -. ____________________________ POSSIBLY MYTH -. ________________________________ -. ________________________________ -. ________________________________ -. ________________________________