Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts

The Story of Laocoon

The Laocoon sculpture is a familiar image, featured in Latin textbooks and discussed in almost every art history survey course. But what's the story behind this sculpture? Who is Laocoon and why are he and his sons being strangled?

The story is told in an epic poem called the Aeneid, written by the Roman poet Virgil in the first century BC. In many ways, the Aeneid picks up where the Greek epic, the Illiad, left off. The Greeks are at war with the Trojans because Paris, a Trojan prince, has stolen Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world.

After many years of fighting, the Greeks haven't managed to breach the walls of Troy, so they turn to trickery. The Greek army constructs a giant wooden horse, leaving its belly hollow so that they can hide inside. They wheel the horse up to the walls of Troy, pretending that it's a peace offering. But, after almost a decade of warfare with the Greeks, the Trojans are mistrustful and there is a discussion about whether or not to bring the horse into the city. Amidst the confusion, Laocoon, a Trojan priest, says this:

O my poor people,
Men of Troy, what madness has come over you?
Can you believe the enemy truly gone?
A gift from the Greeks, and no ruse?
Is that their way?
Have no faith in the horse!
Whatever it is, even when Greeks bring gifts
I fear them, gifts and all.

Laocoon is punished for his words. Some of the gods want the ruse to be successful so that the Greeks will win the war. So, as Laocoon stands at the seaside, preparing to make a sacrifices, snakes are sent from the sea to strangle he and his sons.

From the calm sea - twin snakes
Coiling, uncoiling, swam abreast for shore,
Their underbellies showing as their crests
Reared red as blood above the swell; behind
they glided with great undulating backs.

They slid until they reached Laocoon.
Each snake enveloped one of his two boys,
twining about and feeding on the body.
Next they ensnared the man as he ran up
With weapons: coils like cables looped and bound him
Twice round the middle; twice about his throat
They whipped their back-scales, and their heads towered,
While with both hands he fought to break the knots,
Drenched in slime, his hand-bands black with venom,
Sending to heaven his appalling cries.

Text adapted from Robert Fitzgerald's translation of the Aeneid. Published by Vintage, 1990.