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Concept
Laocoön
Summary
Laocoön (leɪˈɒkoʊˌɒn,_-kəˌwɒn; Laokóōn, laokóɔːn, gen.: Λαοκόοντος) is a figure in Greek and Roman mythology and the Epic Cycle. Laocoön was a Trojan priest. He and his two young sons were attacked by giant serpents, sent by the gods. The story of Laocoön has been the subject of numerous artists, both in ancient and in more contemporary times.
Laocoön was variously called as the son of Acoetes, Antenor, or Poseidon; or the son of Priam and Hecuba.
He had two sons.
The most detailed description of Laocoön's grisly fate was provided by Quintus Smyrnaeus in Posthomerica, a later, literary version of events following the Iliad. According to Quintus, Laocoön begged the Trojans to set fire to the Trojan horse to ensure it was not a trick.
Athena, angry with him and the Trojans, shook the ground around Laocoön's feet and painfully blinded him. The Trojans, watching this unfold, assumed Laocoön was punished for the Trojans' mutilating and doubting Sinon, the undercover Greek soldier sent to convince the Trojans to let him and the horse inside their city walls. Thus, the Trojans wheeled the great wooden horse in. Laocoön did not give up trying to convince the Trojans to burn the horse.
According to one source, it was Athena who punished Laocoön even further, by sending two giant sea serpents to strangle and kill him and his two sons. Another version of the story says that it was Poseidon who sent the sea serpents to kill them. And according to Apollodorus, it was Apollo who sent the two sea serpents, because Laocoön had insulted Apollo by sleeping with his wife in front of his cult statue.
Virgil used the story in the Aeneid. According to Virgil, Laocoön advised the Trojans to not receive the horse from the Greeks. They were taken in by the deceitful testimony of Sinon and disregarded Laocoön's advice. The enraged Laocoön threw his spear at the Horse in response.
Minerva then sent sea serpents to strangle Laocoön and his two sons, Antiphantes and Thymbraeus, for his actions.
"Laocoön, ostensibly sacrificing a bull to Neptune on behalf of the city (lines 201 ff.
Official source
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