Parkway North’s History Club Builds Trojan Horse

Alex Tycksen|October 18, 2022

Sophomore William Pooley and junior Narek Balabekyan discuss how best to build the Trojan Horse and prank the theater department. In the first meeting of the history club, members decided that the club would build a Trojan Horse, with the idea of putting it in the theater and seeing the theater team’s reaction to it.
Pooley sees if he can fit in the box and hide just like the Greek soldiers hid in the horse. The idea was to surprise the theater department. “We thought that theater club would have an understanding of why we did this due to the Trojan War being part of a story and a play,” said Pooley.
Unfortunately, the plan failed, so they decided to just create the horse without hiding it in. The term Trojan Horse today means to trick or use strategies that causes a someone to invite a foe into a securely protected place or to deceive them by appearance.
Balabekyan works on the neck of the Trojan horse. History club is a place where people share their love of history, work on projects, have history discussions, while trying to have some fun.
Instead of being built of wood by the Greek army, Parkway North’s Trojan Horse was constructed with cardboard and tape by three students. It took 40 minutes for the horse to take form.
Pooley, a sophomore in AP World History, has a love of British Monarchs. Balabekyan joined History Club after hearing about it from a friend. Together they, and the other members of the history club, create projects to share their love of history.
Balabekyan and Pooley put the finishing touches on the horse before moving it to the theater. The Trojan Horse was in the “Iliad” written by Homer. In the story, the Greeks, who were under the guidance of King Odysseus, had built a huge wooden horse. The Trojans believed the huge wooden horse was a peace offering to their gods and thus a symbol of their victory after a long siege. During the night, Greek warriors emerged from it and opened the gates to let the returned Greek army raze the city.
The finished project was placed in the theater. “What we are going to do is scare theater with the Trojan Horse,” said Pooley. Sadly, there was no scare since no one popped out of the horse, but they were confused to see it there.