Anticlus

Anticlus appears in the Homeric and post-Homeric tradition as one of the Greek warriors selected to conceal themselves inside the wooden horse used in the stratagem to take Troy. Sources in the epic cycle identify him as a member of the contingent within the horse; some secondary catalogues of Trojan War participants give genealogical notes (sources vary), but the supplied materials treat him primarily as a named combatant within the Trojan Horse episode.

No physical description of Anticlus (height, armor, facial features) is provided in the supplied sources. Descriptively, he is recorded only as one of the Greeks hidden inside the crowded wooden horse brought into Troy, i.e., concealed within the craft alongside other warriors.

The sources attribute no supernatural powers to Anticlus; he is a mortal warrior. His notable behavior in the narrative is a moment of human vulnerability: when Helen circled the horse and imitated the voices of the warriors' wives, Anticlus attempted to answer on hearing the voice of his wife Laodamia. Odysseus prevented him from replying by shutting his mouth with his hands; some accounts say the restraint was so forceful that Anticlus was strangled (variant traditions differ on this detail).