With the release on DVD this month of the Hollywood blockbuster, “Troy,” the Internet is once again abuzz with a rumor that is fast becoming urban legend.
The tale, told in various ways on Web sites and via widely circulated e-mails, claims that former students from Texas A&M’s Master of Science in Visualization Sciences program, who worked on the movie’s special effects, placed a “saw ’em off” graphic (see picture) — a University of Texas Longhorn logo with mutilated horns — on the sail of one of the boats in the Greek flotilla that attacks Troy.
When “Troy” was released in theaters last spring, the rumor prompted a number of media inquiries to A&M’s Visualization Laboratory from reporters eager to verify whether the sail in the movie actually bore the handiwork of Aggie “Vizzers” — students and graduates of the visualization sciences program in A&M’s Department of Architecture.
Bill Jenks, director of the Visualization Lab, was quick to take the wind out of the rapidly spreading rumor.
It’s not true!
In fact, upon closer inspection, the sail in question displays a stylized image of a bull with horns curling downward (see picture). But unlike the “saw ’em off!” image, the bull’s horns are fully intact.
The bull was a widely used iconic symbol in ancient Greece. It was considered a sacred animal in Greek mythology, representing fertility and wealth and symbolizing the male principle in nature. Greeks once believed that earthquakes were caused by bulls tossing the earth on their horns.
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