From Homer to Hogwash
As everyone who has ever opened a book knows, the greatest scam of all time was the Trojan Horse caper, when the Greeks hid inside a giant wooden horse and left it standing in front of Troy’s gate posing as a gift from the departing Greek forces to the brave defenders after a ten-year siege.
The Trojans were no fools, but they trusted the Greeks. After all, the noblest of them, Achilles, a semi-god, had returned the body of Hector to his father, King Priam, after the duel between the two greatest competing warriors. But once inside the gates, the Greeks emerged from the horse and put Troy to the sword, killing the men and taking the women as slaves. Ever since, “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts” has been an aphorism mostly used by boors to illustrate a little knowledge.
It was nevertheless a great story with only one flaw: It was fiction, written—sung, rather—by a blind Greek poet named Homer more than 2,500 years ago. It was the first thing I was taught when I was learning to read and write. There was trouble at the time over trade routes between Greeks and their nei
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LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
