SYNON, SYNOUN is a name synonymous with treachery. Aeneas tells Dido the story of the Trojan horse and Sinon's part in the episode, Aeneid II.1-355. Sinon persuaded the Trojans to haul into Troy the great wooden horse left on the beach when the Greeks apparently sailed away; the horse, he said, was an offering to Pallas Athena. At night Sinon opened the horse, the bravest Greeks jumped out, and Troy was taken. Virgil develops the story from two brief mentions in Odyssey IV.271-274 and VIII.499-500. He shows that the Greeks won Troy through guile and treachery, not through force of arms. Dante places Sinon in Bolgia Ten of Circle Eight of Hell among the falsifiers, il falso Sinon greco da Troiae, Inf XXX.98. The story is told in Dictys Cretensis, Ephemeridos belli Troiani V.11-12 and Dares, De excidio Troiae historia, 40.

The courtiers at King Cambyuskan's court stare at the bronze horse as if it were "the Greeks hors Synon," SqT 209. Chaucer uses the group genitive, meaning "the Greek horse of Sinon." Sinon's story is painted on the walls of Venus's temple, HF I.151-156. The fox is classed with traitors including Sinon, and he is the "false dissymulour," NPT 3228, an echo of Dante. The Legend of Dido begins with a brief summary of Sinon's treachery, LGW 930-933. [Genylon-Olyver]

Synon, a spelling variant of Latin Sinon, occurs in final rhyming position, SqT 209; NPT 3229; HF I.152. Synoun occurs in final rhyming position, LGW 931.