The Greeks loved to share stories about brave heroes and their great adventures.

Everyone’s favourite hero was Heracles (the Romans called him Hercules). Heracles was Zeus’ son. He was so strong he could kill a lion with his bare hands.

He also sailed with Jason and the Argonauts to find the Golden Fleece and he performed 12 ‘impossible’ tasks.

Heracles was very brave, but he was killed when he was tricked into putting on a poisoned robe. However, Zeus liked Heracles so much that he took him to Mount Olympus and made him immortal.

The painting below is of the Trojan Horse, which is a tale from the Trojan War about how the Greeks used this ploy to enter the city of Troy and win the war.

From Wikipedia:

In the standard version, after a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse, and hid a select force of men inside. The Greeks pretended to sail away, and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy. That night the Greek force crept out of the horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of night. The Greeks entered and destroyed the city of Troy, decisively ending the war.

Metaphorically a "Trojan Horse" has come to mean any trick or stratagem that causes a target to invite a foe into a securely protected bastion or place. A malicious computer program which tricks users into willingly running it is also called a "Trojan horse".

A 19th-century painting of the Wooden Horse. A famous story tells how the Greeks captured Troy by hiding soldiers inside the giant horse.