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LACOOON (?a????? , usual English pronunciation ), the son of Acoetes
Acoetes

Acoetes was the name of two men in Greek mythology and Roman mythology. The first Acoetes is known for helping the god Dionysus. Another, lesser-known Acoetes was father to Laocoon, who warned about the Trojan Horse....
 was a Trojan
Troy

Troy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle, and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer....
 priest
Priest

A priest or priestess is a person having the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities....
 of Poseidon
Poseidon

In Greek mythology, Poseidon was the god of the sea and, as "Earth-Shaker," of earthquakes. The name of the god Nethuns in Etruscan mythology was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon....
, (or Apollo
Apollo

In Greek mythology and Roman mythology, Apollo , is one of the most important and many-sided of the Twelve Olympians. The ideal of the kouros , Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun; truth and prophecy; archery; medicine and healing; music, poetry, and the arts; and more....
), whose rules he had defied, either by marrying and having sons, or by having committed an impiety by making love with his wife in the presence of a cult image
Cult image

In the practice of religion, a cult image is a man-made object that is venerated for the deity, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents....
 in a sanctuary; his minor role in the Epic Cycle narrating the Trojan War
Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta....
 was of warning the Trojans in vain against accepting the Trojan Horse
Trojan Horse

The "Trojan Horse" refers to the stratagem that allowed the Greeks to finally enter the city of Troy during the Trojan War. In the best-known version of this Bronze Age story, after a fruitless 10-year siege of Troy, the Greeks built a huge figure of a horse, in which a select force of men hid....
 from the Greeks
Greeks

The Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in Greek diaspora communities around the world....
 — "A deadly fraud is this," he said, "devised by the Achaean chiefs!" — and for his subsequent divine execution by two serpents sent to Troy across the sea from the island of Tenedos, where the Greeks had temporarily camped.

Laocoön warned his fellow Trojans against the wooden horse presented to the city by the Greeks.






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LACOOON (?a????? , usual English pronunciation ), the son of Acoetes
Acoetes

Acoetes was the name of two men in Greek mythology and Roman mythology. The first Acoetes is known for helping the god Dionysus. Another, lesser-known Acoetes was father to Laocoon, who warned about the Trojan Horse....
 was a Trojan
Troy

Troy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle, and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer....
 priest
Priest

A priest or priestess is a person having the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities....
 of Poseidon
Poseidon

In Greek mythology, Poseidon was the god of the sea and, as "Earth-Shaker," of earthquakes. The name of the god Nethuns in Etruscan mythology was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon....
, (or Apollo
Apollo

In Greek mythology and Roman mythology, Apollo , is one of the most important and many-sided of the Twelve Olympians. The ideal of the kouros , Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun; truth and prophecy; archery; medicine and healing; music, poetry, and the arts; and more....
), whose rules he had defied, either by marrying and having sons, or by having committed an impiety by making love with his wife in the presence of a cult image
Cult image

In the practice of religion, a cult image is a man-made object that is venerated for the deity, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents....
 in a sanctuary; his minor role in the Epic Cycle narrating the Trojan War
Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta....
 was of warning the Trojans in vain against accepting the Trojan Horse
Trojan Horse

The "Trojan Horse" refers to the stratagem that allowed the Greeks to finally enter the city of Troy during the Trojan War. In the best-known version of this Bronze Age story, after a fruitless 10-year siege of Troy, the Greeks built a huge figure of a horse, in which a select force of men hid....
 from the Greeks
Greeks

The Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in Greek diaspora communities around the world....
 — "A deadly fraud is this," he said, "devised by the Achaean chiefs!" — and for his subsequent divine execution by two serpents sent to Troy across the sea from the island of Tenedos, where the Greeks had temporarily camped.

Laocoön warned his fellow Trojans against the wooden horse presented to the city by the Greeks. In the Aeneid, Virgil gives Laocoön the famous line Equo ne credite, Teucri / Quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes
Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes

?Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes? is a Latin phrase from Virgil's Aeneid . It means ?I fear the Danaans even if they bring gifts?....
, or "Do not trust the Horse, Trojans / Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks even bearing gifts." This line is the source of the saying: "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts."

The most detailed description of Laocoön's grisly fate was provided by Quintus Smyrnaeus
Quintus Smyrnaeus

Quintus Smyrnaeus was a Greece Epic poetry poet whose Posthomerica, following "after Homer" continues the narration of the Trojan War.The dates of Smyrnaeus's life are controversial, but they are traditionally placed in the latter part of the fourth century....
 in Posthomerica
Posthomerica

The Posthomerica is an epic poem by Quintus of Smyrna, probably written in the latter half of the 4th century, and telling the story of the period between the death of Hektor and the fall of Troy....
, a later, literary version of events following the Iliad. Virgil employed the motif in the Aeneid
Aeneid

The Aeneid is a Latin Epic poetry written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Rome....
; the Trojans, according to Virgil, disregarded his advice, however, and were taken in by the deceitful testimony of Sinon
Sinon

In Greek mythology, Sinon, a son of Aesimus , or of the crafty Sisyphus, was a Greek warrior during the Trojan War. He pretended to have deserted the Greeks and, as a Trojan captive, told the Trojans that the giant wooden horse the Greeks had left behind was intended as a gift to the gods to ensure their safe voyage home....
; in his resulting anger Laocoön threw his spear at the Horse. Minerva, who was supporting the Greeks, at this moment sent sea-serpents to strangle Laocoön and his two sons, Antiphantes and Thymbraeus. "Laocoön, ostensibly sacrificing a bull to Neptune on behalf of the city (lines 201ff.), becomes himself the tragic victim, as the simile (lines 223-24) makes clear. In some sense, his death must be symbolic of the city as a whole," S.V. Tracy notes. According to the Hellenistic poet Euphorion of Chalcis
Euphorion of Chalcis

Euphorion, Greek language poet and grammarian, born at Chalcis in Euboea about 275 BC.Euphorion, after studying philosophy with Lakydes and Prytanis, became the student and eromenos of the poet Archeboulus....
, Laocoon is in fact punished for procreating upon holy ground sacred to Poseidon; only unlucky timing caused the Trojans to misinterpret his death as punishment for striking the Horse, which they bring into the city with disastrous consequences. The episode furnished the subject of Sophocles
Sophocles

Sophocles was the second of the three classical Greece tragedy whose work has survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus and earlier than those of Euripides....
' lost tragedy, Laocoön.

In Aeneid
Aeneid

The Aeneid is a Latin Epic poetry written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Rome....
 Virgil describes the circumstances of Laocoön's death:

From the Aeneid
Aeneid

The Aeneid is a Latin Epic poetry written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Rome....


Ille simul manibus tendit divellere nodos
perfusus sanie vittas atroque veneno,
clamores simul horrendos ad sidera tollit:
qualis mugitus, fugit cum saucius aram
taurus et incertam excussit cervice securim.
Literal English translation:


At the same time he stretched forth to tear the knots with his hands
his fillets soaked with saliva and black venom
at the same time he lifted to heaven horrendous cries:
like the bellowing when a wounded bull has fled from the altar
and has shaken the ill-aimed axe from its neck.
John Dryden
John Dryden

John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of English Restoration to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden....
's translation:


With both his hands he labors at the knots;
His holy fillets the blue venom blots;
His roaring fills the flitting air around.
Thus, when an ox receives a glancing wound,
He breaks his bands, the fatal altar flies,
And with loud bellowings breaks the yielding skies.


The death of Laocoön was famously depicted in a much-admired marble Lacoön and His Sons
Laocoön and his Sons

The statue of Laoco?n and His Sons, also called the Laoco?n Group, is a monumental marble sculpture now in the Vatican Museums, Rome....
, attributed by Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient author, naturalist or natural philosopher and naval and military commander of some importance who wrote Natural History ....
 to the Rhodian
Rhodes

Rhodes is a Greece List of islands of Greece approximately southwest of Turkey in eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007 of which 53,709 resided in the Rhodes capital city of the island....
 sculptors Agesander, Athenodoros
Athenodoros

Athenodoros or Athenodorus was the name of several figures in the ancient Hellenistic world:* Athenodoros of Kleitor , sculptor who made statues of Zeus and Apollo which the Lacedaemonians erected at Delphi...
, and Polydorus
Polydorus

In Greek mythology, Polydorus referred to several different people.#An Argive, son of Hippomedon. Pausanias lists him as one of the Epigoni, who attacked Thebes, Greece in retaliation for the deaths of their fathers, the Seven Against Thebes, who died attempting the same thing....
), which stands in the Vatican Museums
Vatican Museums

The Vatican Museums , in Viale Vaticano in Rome, inside the Vatican City, are among the greatest museums in the world, since they display works from the immense collection built up by Roman Catholic Church throughout the centuries....
, Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
. Copies have been executed by various artists, notably Baccio Bandinelli. These show the complete sculpture (with conjectural reconstructions of the missing pieces) and can be seen in Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence
Florence

Florence is the Capital city of the Italy Regions of Italy of Tuscany and of the provinces of Italy Province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany and has a population of 364,779 ....
 and in front of the Archaeological Museum, Odessa
Odessa

Odessa or Odesa is the Capital of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major port located on the shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 ....
, Ukraine
Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south....
, amongst others.

The marble Laocoön provided the central image for Lessing
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was a Germany writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist, and art critic, and one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era....
's Laocoön, 1766, an aesthetic polemic directed again Winckelmann and the comte de Caylus. Daniel Albright reengages the role of the figure of Laocoön in aesthetic thought in his book Untwisting the Serpent: Modernism in Literature, Music, and Other Arts.

In addition to other literary references, John Barth
John Barth

John Simmons Barth is an American novelist and short-story writer, known for the postmodern literature and metafiction quality of his work.John Barth was born in Cambridge, Maryland, and briefly studied "Elementary Theory and Advanced Orchestration" at Juilliard before attending Johns Hopkins University, receiving a B.A....
 employs a bust of Laocoön in his novella, The End of the Road. The R.E.M. song, "Laughing," on "Murmur" references Laocoön ("Laocoön had two sons"). The marble's pose is parodied in Asterix and the Laurel Wreath
Asterix and the Laurel Wreath

Asterix and the Laurel Wreath is the eighteenth volume of the Asterix List of Asterix volumes, by Ren? Goscinny and Albert Uderzo . It was originally serialized in Pilote issues 621-642 in 1971 and translated in to English language in 1974....
.

Classical sources

Arctinus, OCT Homer 5.107.23; pseudo-Apollodorus, Epitome 5.18; Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Dionysius of Halicarnassus

Dionysius of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Caesar Augustus....
, Roman Antiquities 1.48.2; Petronius
Petronius

Gaius Petronius Arbiter was a Roman Empire courtier during the reign Nero. He is speculated to be the author of the Satyricon, a satire believed to have been written during the Neronian age....
 89; Servius on Aeneid 2.201; Hyginus, Fabula 135; Quintus Smyrnaeus
Quintus Smyrnaeus

Quintus Smyrnaeus was a Greece Epic poetry poet whose Posthomerica, following "after Homer" continues the narration of the Trojan War.The dates of Smyrnaeus's life are controversial, but they are traditionally placed in the latter part of the fourth century....
, Posthomerica 12.445ff; John Tzetzes
John Tzetzes

John Tzetzes , was a Byzantine Empire poet and grammarian, known to have lived at Constantinople during the 12th century.Tzetzes was Georgians on his mother's side ....
, Ad Lycophron 347.

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