Weapons of war are often given names that recall the most aggressive traits of animals. In the ages before chemistry unleashed the power of rapid oxidation (for turbines, internal combustion engines, rockets, and explosives) the muscle power of brute force, supplied by men or beasts, was the supreme measure of potential and possible accomplishment in warfare. Unsurprisingly, the brawniest animals and their most aggressive and brutish behavior suggested the names for weapons. Perhaps the horse gave its name to a weapon, at a time when horses were not viewed as primarily amicable but potentially wild creatures whose feral qualities were vividly remembered by those who had only recently domesticated them.

Today they are mostly symbolically untamed, as few actually encounter wild horses. Long ago, before they were regarded as beautifully graceful, swift companions imagined to be faithful, before they were domesticated, horses were savage, were big game to be hunted and eaten when they could be caught at all--as shown on walls painted by salutrean artists in Franco-Cantabrian caves. Their image, as anything but docile, as powerful beasts persisted for tens of thousands of years. Their prehistoric reputation survived into the age of literacy and was recorded in our culture's central narratives. When God mocks humanity's puny status, the fierce poetry of Job captures the lingering image of the horse, surely a neolithic recollection perduring into the age of literacy:

Have you given the horse its strength? Have you clothed his neck with thunder? Can you make him afraid as a grasshopper? The glory of his nostrils is terrible. He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength.

Over time the story of what occurred before the walls of Troy kept its overall shape, that a large artificial horse was used to enter Troy and within it was a squadron of Greeks. But over time and with distance from the events the story’s technology became garbled. This may seem strange as Homer is renowned for the precision of his observations, but Homer did not record this event, a lesser poet did. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in the Iliad, which describes the ten-year's siege of Troy. Yet, it is possible, over this vast distance, to determine what weapon breached the walls of Troy and was called a "horse".