Posted
on Medium August 24, 2025
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Xenia, a code of hospitality, was the basis for trade around the Aegean in ancient times. Based on the belief that any stranger might be a god in disguise, strangers were welcomed as if they were friends or family. Trading ships could safely sail from one little city-state to another and do business at all. There was no need for an overarching government for free trade to flourish.
It was a major breach of xenia when Paris, a guest of King Menelaus in Sparta, stole his wife and her wealth. As a matter of principle that was reason enough for war. And the war ended with a reciprocal deceit — the trick of the Trojan Horse.
The Trojan Horse also served as metaphor for the change to an era when horses would be key to victory in battle. Greek warriors hid inside the Trojan Horse, in its belly, as if the horse were about to give birth and thereby start a new era. During the Bronze Age, horses were used to pull wagons and chariots; they were not normally ridden. Sustained horseback riding in warfare only became practical once iron horseshoes protected horses’ hooves. By the time of the Peloponnesian War cavalry was crucial.
Myths of centaurs also call to mind the changeover to horseback battle tactics. Aztecs thought that Conquistadors on horseback were creatures half-man half-horse, and the first sight of mounted invaders in ancient Greece might have given rise to myths of centaurs.
That brings to mind images of Scythians and later Cossacks doing horseback gymnastics, shooting arrows from bizarre positions. And that brings to mind the shot that Odysseus makes in the climax of The Odyssey.
In that scene, axe heads are buried in a trench lined up so an arrow could pass through the handle holes of all of them. Those holes would be no more than a couple feet above the ground. And Odysseus, keeping his backside on a stool, would have had to bend close to the ground to make that impossible shot. I imagine his posture as very similar to that of a Scythian warrior on horseback, leaning over close to the ground, bow in hand.
The special bow that Odysseus uses was once owned by Eurytus. That the name of several different individuals in Greek legend. Odysseus’ friend was the king of Oechalia. But another Eurytus, who would have been familiar to the audience of The Odyssey, was a centaur who instigated the famous battle between the Lapiths and the centaurs. And Heracles, the greatest of Greek heroes, was killed by the blood of Nessus, a centaur, which marked the end of the Heroic Age. So when Odysseus uses Eurytus’ bow, the homeric audience would hear echoes of the centaurs who brought about the end of the Heroic Age. His shot isn’t just a personal triumph. It also signifies a cultural transition.
Odysseus’ impossible shot was more than a feat of skill — it was a sign that Greece was moving into a new age, when horses, riders, and war itself would never be the same.
Thanks to OpenAI, version GPT-5 for conversation about this subject.
List of Richard’s jokes, stories, poems and essays at Medium
Richard's Trojan novel Let the Women Have Their Say is available at Amazon.