Sinon

Sinon

A son of Aesimus, or according to Virgil (The Aeneid by Virgil ii) of Sisyphus, and a grandson of Autolycus, was a relation of Odysseus, and is described in later poems as having accompanied his kinsman to Troy (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 344; Heyne, Excurs. iv. The Aeneid by Virgil ii.).

According to these traditions, he allowed himself to be taken prisoner by the Trojans, after he had mutilated himself in such a manner as to make them believe that he had been ill-treated by the Greeks. He told the Trojans that he was hated by Odysseus, and had been selected by him to be sacrificed, because Apollo had ordered a human sacrifice to be offered, that the Greeks might safely depart from the coast of Troy, and added that he had escaped death by flight. When he was asked what was the purport of the wooden horse, he told them that it had been constructed as an atonemnt for the Palladium which had been carried off, and that if the Trojans ventured to destroy it, their kingdom should fall, but that if they would draw it with their own hands into their own city, Asia would gain the supremacy over Greece (The Aeneid by Virgil ii. 57, &c.; Tzetz. Posthom. 680, &c.).

The Trojans took his advice, and when the horse was drawn into the city, he gave the preconcerted signal, opened the door of the horse, and the Greeks rushing out took possession of Troy (The Aeneid by Virgil). Quintus Smyrnaeus and Tryphiodorus have somewhat modified this tradition, respecting which see Heyne. In the Lesche at Delphi he was represented as a companion of Odysseus. (Description of Greece by Pausanias x. 27.)

From Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology

From The Vision Of Hell, Part 9. By Dante Alighieri,

"Who are that abject pair," I next inquir'd,
"That closely bounding thee upon thy right
Lie smoking, like a band in winter steep'd
In the chill stream?"—"When to this gulf I dropt,"
He answer'd, "here I found them; since that hour
They have not turn'd, nor ever shall, I ween,
Till time hath run his course. One is that dame
The false accuser of the Hebrew youth;
Sinon the other, that false Greek from Troy.
Sharp fever drains the reeky moistness out,
In such a cloud upsteam'd." When that he heard,
One, gall'd perchance to be so darkly nam'd,
With clench'd hand smote him on the braced paunch,
That like a drum resounded: but forthwith
Adamo smote him on the face, the blow
Returning with his arm, that seem'd as hard.