A Horse with a Warrior

Most will know of, to a greater or lesser degree, the fantastical tales of Greek mythology. The stories of the heroes and the gods are all mixed up with historical accounts. It seems certain, for example, that in the late Bronze age, between the thirteenth and twelfth centuries BCE, Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, waged a ten year war against Priam, King of Troy. It seems less certain, for example, that a demigod named Achilles with invincible power and strength, was the greatest Greek warrior in that war. The general Odysseus, however, appears to have been a real person. The story of the war is immortalized in Homer’s Iliad, and a more magical tale of Odyssues’s ten year “odyssey” to return home again is chronicled in the sequel.

One of the most famous stories from the Trojan War mythology is the crafty ruse devised by Odysseus, after ten exhausting years and the death of Achilles, to win the war, by hiding their soldiers inside a massive wooden horse. The Iliad barely mentions it, but Virgil’s Aeneid from 29 BCE goes into great detail. The truth of this tale is controversial, and a similar story can actually be found in Euripides play The Trojan Women from four hundred years earlier. In the more well-known account, Odysseus commissioned the master architect Epeius to construct the horse with a trapdoor and an inscription to Athena. Odysseus and between 20-50 of his best soldiers hid inside. The Greeks set fire to their camp, and Agamemnon sailed the armies away to the nearby isle Tenedos. The ruse was completed by leaving Odysseus’s cousin Sinon behind, to convince the Trojans, who came outside the city walls the next morning to marvel at the abandoned enemy camp and the mysterious massive statue. Why is it so big, they suspiciously wondered. So you could not possibly bring it inside your city walls and defile our peace offering to Athena, who is so unhappy with us for admitting defeat, replied Sinon. There’s a lot more to the story, but we all know the ending here.

Veracity of the tale aside, we can all certainly agree it is ancient. When Osamu Kasho, Japanese artisan of the Karakuri Creation Group, began thinking about what to create for their next themed event, “Ancient Times”, his mind turned to this tale. He mentions that he had long thought about making a wooden horse, and this presented a perfect opportunity. One of the main elements in the piece came to him right away, and was originally the only trick, which then allowed access to the hidden space inside. Explaining more about this would give away one of the truly delightful surprises in store that will not fail to make you smile. But he decided to keep going. “I usually make simple move karakuri boxes, with two or three steps as I have made. Because the more mechanisms that exist in a box, the more breakable. I am always finding simple and nice mechanisms. However, I wanted it to be a more complicated one this time. I reviewed its first prototype horse, and some more ideas came to me.” He developed the work into a true “sequential discovery” puzzle, with an unexpected disguised tool and a unique way of using it, and even added a tiny warrior hiding inside. “I ordered the warrior from my good friend Kobo Alp. I love his work and his free and humane working style. I first met him at my previous wood crafts workplace when I started making Karakuri boxes. He is continuing to make his original small dolls and I am always inspired from them. I hope we collaborate again and again. I think it's a really good combination, isn't it?” Indeed I think so too. Kasho has collaborated on his work before as well, and the interplay of different art forms always seems to elevate the whole. “Horse” is one of Kasho’s best works to date, and has become one of the most talked about Karakuri boxes from ancient times to recent times. “It was really challenging work for me.”

Let’s toast this Trojan Horse with another one, not quite as ancient but relatively old in the pantheon of cocktail history, at least. Perhaps I should use the term “Parthenon” since the Pantheon is Roman, and we are referencing a Greek tale, but parthenon doesn’t have the same meaning here. Anyway it’s all Greek to me. The tale we are telling now is a horse’s tail – no, sorry, a horse’s neck - a drink from the nineteenth century which featured a simple glass of ginger ale embellished with a very long strip of lemon peel to represent said neck. This was served cold as a refreshingly non-alcoholic pick me up. Somewhere toward the turn of the century whiskey, or more famously, brandy, was added to give it a “kick”. Soda water and brandy had been the go to libation of the era, a trend which started in London and made its way to New York. Ginger ale became a popular substitute and all sorts of new highballs were created – the Horse’s Neck was just one of many. Patrons would order their Horse’s Neck with a kick, to leave no doubt about which version they were after.

The drink became very popular with the British Royal Navy in World War II, and can be found in the period era movie The Yangtze Incident starring Donald Houston. It was also popular in literature, and a favorite of Ian Fleming. James Bond had a much more famous proclivity towards shaken martinis, but can be found swilling a brandy and ginger ale in the book On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. For my version of the Horse’s Neck, I selected a spicy rye whiskey, which would have been a popular American spirit in place of brandy during the drink’s heyday. I also wanted to add a surprise, what with this being an homage to the Trojan Horse and all that. So there is a little surprising kick of flavor here too. Just keep in mind that any proper highball is the pure combination of one to two parts spirit and four to six parts soda. Anything extra is pure embellishment. Cheers!

Trojan Horse

2 oz rye

½ oz intense ginger liqueur

¼ oz Amaro di Angostura

4 oz ginger beer

4 dashes Angostura bitters

Build ingredients in a highball glass over ice and dash Ango bitters on top. Garnish with a long twisting lemon peel. Try to get yours to look more like a horse’s head and less like a sea serpent.

explore more: