View source for Laocoön

{{short description|Trojan priest in Greek and Roman mythology}}
{{Other uses|Laocoon (disambiguation)}}

[[File:Laocoön and his sons group.jpg|thumb|270px|right|''[[Laocoön and His Sons]]'' in the [[Vatican Museums|Vatican]]]]
'''Laocoön''' ({{IPAc-en|l|eɪ|ˈ|ɒ|k|oʊ|ˌ|ɒ|n|,_|-|k|ə|ˌ|w|ɒ|n}};<ref>{{cite dictionary |title=Laocoön |dictionary=[[Lexico|Oxford Dictionaries]] UK English Dictionary |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |url=http://www.lexico.com/definition/Laoco%C3%B6n}} {{Dead link|date=September 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} {{dead link|date=September 2022|bot=medic}} {{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref><ref>{{MerriamWebsterDictionary|access-date=21 January 2016|Laocoön}}</ref>{{efn| group=Note|The double-dot diacritic over the next-to-last "o" is an English-language [[Diaeresis (diacritic)|diaeresis]], indicating that each of the two vowels should be sounded as a separate syllable. (It should not be confused with an ''[[umlaut (linguistics)|umlaut]]'', which would indicate a different sound to the vowel altogether.)}} {{langx|grc|Λᾱοκόων|Lāokóōn}}, {{IPA|grc|laːokóɔːn|IPA}}, gen.: {{langx|grc|Λᾱοκόωντος}}) is a figure in [[Greek mythology|Greek]] and [[Roman mythology]] and the [[Epic Cycle]]. 

Laocoön is a [[Troy|Trojan]] priest. He and his two young sons are attacked by giant serpents sent by the gods when Laocoön argued against bringing the [[Trojan horse]] into the city. The story of Laocoön has been the subject of numerous artists, both in ancient and in more contemporary times.

==Family==
Laocoön was variously called as the son of [[Acoetes]],<ref>{{cite book |quote=Laocoon, son of Acoetes, brother of [[Anchises]], and priest of Apollo&nbsp;... |author=[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]] |title=[[Fabulae|Fabula]] |at=135}}</ref> [[Antenor (mythology)|Antenor]]<ref>[[John Tzetzes|Tzetzes]] ad [[Lycophron]], [https://topostext.org/work/860#347 347] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240226075020/https://topostext.org/work/860#347 |date=26 February 2024 }}</ref>{{AI-generated source|date=November 2024}} or [[Poseidon]]{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}; or the son of [[Priam]] and [[Hecuba]].<ref>{{cite dictionary |editor=Peck, Harry Thurston |year=1898 |title=Laocoön |dictionary=Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0062:id=laocoon-harpers |via=Perseus project, [[Tufts University]] |access-date=8 October 2022 |archive-date=8 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221008091546/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0062:id=laocoon-harpers |url-status=live }}</ref> He had two sons.

==Death==
[[File:VaticanVergilFolio18vLaocoon.jpg|thumb|Death of Laocoön from the [[Vatican Vergil]]]]
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.<ref>{{cite book |author=Quintus of Smyrna |title=The Trojan Epic Posthomerica |translator=James, Alan |place=Baltimore, MD |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |year=2004 |edition=Print}}</ref> Another version of the story says that it was [[Poseidon]] who sent the sea serpents to kill them. And according to [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], it was [[Apollo]] who sent the two sea serpents, because Laocoön had insulted Apollo by having sex with his wife in front of his cult statue.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]] |title=Epitome |at=E.5.18 |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022%3Atext%3DEpitome%3Abook%3DE%3Achapter%3D5%3Asection%3D18 |via=Perseus project, [[Tufts University]] |access-date=20 February 2021 |archive-date=21 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021124231/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022%3Atext%3DEpitome%3Abook%3DE%3Achapter%3D5%3Asection%3D18 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Virgil used the story in the ''[[Aeneid]]''. According to Virgil, Laocoön advised the Trojans not to 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&nbsp;201 ff.), becomes himself the tragic victim, as the simile (lines&nbsp;223–224) makes clear. In some sense, his death must be symbolic of the city as a whole&nbsp;..." — S.V. Tracy (1987)<ref name=Tracy-1987>{{cite journal |first=S.V. |last=Tracy |date=Autumn 1987 |title=Laocoon's guilt |journal=The American Journal of Philology |volume=108 |issue=3 |pages=452–453 |doi=10.2307/294668 |jstor=294668}}</ref>{{rp|style=ama |page= 453}}

According to the Hellenistic poet [[Euphorion of Chalcis]], Laocoön was ''actually'' punished for procreating upon holy ground sacred to Poseidon; it was only unlucky timing that caused the Trojans to misinterpret his death as punishment for striking the horse with a spear, which they bring into the city with disastrous consequences.{{efn|
Euphorion's poem is lost, but Servius alludes to the lines in his scholia on the ''Aeneid''.
}}
The episode furnished the subject of [[Sophocles]]' lost tragedy, ''Laocoön''.

In ''[[Aeneid]]'', Virgil describes the circumstances of Laocoön's death:

:{|
|-
| from the ''[[Aeneid]]''
| &emsp; &emsp;
| English translation
| &emsp; &emsp;
| tr. [[John Dryden|Dryden]]<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Virgil]] |title=[[Aeneid]] |translator=[[John Dryden|Dryden, J.]] |at=[http://www.bartleby.com/13/2.html line&nbsp;290] }}</ref>
|-
| {{smalldiv|
''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.''
}}
| &emsp; &emsp;
| {{smalldiv|
''At the same time he stretched hands''
: ''forth to tear the knots''
''his fillets soaked with saliva''
: ''and black venom''
''at the same time he lifted horrendous''
: ''cries to heaven:''
''like the bellowing when fleeing''
: ''from the altar a wounded''
''bull and has shaken the''
: ''ill-aimed axe from its neck.''
}}
| &emsp; &emsp;
| {{smalldiv|
''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.''
}}
|}

==Classical descriptions==
[[File:Laocoon MAN Napoli Inv111210.jpg|thumb|Laocoön and his sons attacked by serpents sent by Athena, fresco in [[Pompeii]]]]
The story of Laocoön is not mentioned by [[Homer]], but it had been the subject of a tragedy, now lost, by [[Sophocles]] and was mentioned by other Greek writers, though the events around the attack by the serpents vary considerably. The most famous account of these is now in [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]'' where Laocoön was a priest of Neptune ([[Poseidon]]), who was killed with both his sons after attempting to expose the ruse of the [[Trojan Horse]] by striking it with a spear.{{efn|According to Virgil:
:''Laocoon, ductus Neptuno sorte sacerdos'';{{rp|style=ama|at=2.101}}
two serpents were sent to Troy across the sea from the island of [[Ancient Tenedos|Tenedos]], where the Greeks had temporarily camped.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Virgil]] |title=[[Aeneid]] |at=2.199–227}}</ref>
}}
 
Virgil gives Laocoön the famous line
: ''"[[Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes|Equō nē crēdite, Teucrī / Quidquid id est, timeō Danaōs et dōna ferentēs]]"''
: {{small|[Do not trust the Horse, Trojans / Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks even bearing gifts.]}}
This quote is the source of the saying: ''"Beware of Greeks bearing gifts."''

In Sophocles, however, he was a priest of [[Apollo]] who should have been celibate, but had married. The serpents killed only the two sons, leaving Laocoön himself alive to suffer.<ref>Smith, p 109; according to [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], for one</ref> In other versions, he was killed for having committed an impiety by making love with his wife in the presence of a [[cult image]] in a sanctuary,<ref>according to [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]]</ref> or simply making a sacrifice in the temple with his wife present.<ref>Stewart, 85; this last in the commentary on Virgil of [[Maurus Servius Honoratus]], citing [[Euphorion of Chalcis]]</ref> In this second group of versions, the snakes were sent by Poseidon<ref name=Smith-1846>{{cite book |author=Smith, William |year=1846 |title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology |publisher=Taylor and Walton |page=776}}</ref> and in the first by Poseidon and [[Athena]], or [[Apollo]], and the deaths were interpreted by the Trojans as proof that the horse was a sacred object. The two versions have rather different morals: Laocoön was either punished for doing wrong, or for being right.<ref>Boardman (1993) p 199</ref>

==Later depictions==
The death of Laocoön was famously depicted in a much-admired marble ''[[Laocoön and His Sons]]'', attributed by [[Pliny the Elder]] to the [[Rhodes|Rhodian]] sculptors [[Agesander]], [[Athenodoros of Kleitor|Athenodoros]], and [[Polydorus (sculptor)|Polydorus]], which stands in the [[Vatican Museums]], [[Rome]]. Copies have been executed by various artists, notably [[Baccio Bandinelli]]. These show the complete sculpture (with conjectural reconstructions of the missing pieces) and are located in [[Rhodes]], at the [[Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes]], [[Rome]], the [[Uffizi Gallery]] in [[Florence]] and in front of the Archaeological Museum, [[Odesa]], [[Ukraine]], amongst others. [[Alexander Calder]] also designed a stabile which he called Laocoön in 1947; it's in the collection of [[The Broad|The Broad museum]] in Los Angeles.

The marble Laocoön provided the central image for [[Gotthold Ephraim Lessing|Lessing's]] ''Laocoön'', 1766, an aesthetic polemic directed against [[Johann Joachim Winckelmann|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 [[Hector Berlioz]]'s 1863 opera ''[[Les Troyens]]'', the death of Laocoön is a pivotal moment of the first act after [[Aeneas]]' entrance, sung by eight singers and a double choir ("ottetto et double chœur"). It begins with the verse "Châtiment effroyable" ("frightful punishment").

* In addition to other literary references, [[John Barth]] employs a bust of Laocoön in his novella, ''The End of the Road''.
* The [[R.E.M.]] song "Laughing", on the band's debut album, ''[[Murmur (album)|Murmur]]'' (1983), references Laocoön, rendering him female ("Laocoön and her two sons");<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Hogan |first=Peter |title=The Complete Guide to the Music of R.E.M. |publisher=[[Omnibus Press]] |year=1995 |isbn=0-7119-4901-8 |pages=7}}</ref> they also reference Laocoön in the song "Harborcoat".
* The comic book ''[[Asterix and the Laurel Wreath]]'' parodies statue's pose.
* American author [[Joyce Carol Oates]] also references Laocoön in her 1989 novel ''American Appetites''.
* In Stave&nbsp;V of ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'', by [[Charles Dickens]] (1843), Scrooge awakes on Christmas morning, "making a perfect Laocoön of himself with his stockings".
* [[Barbara Tuchman]]'s ''The March of Folly'' begins with an extensive analysis of the Laocoön story.
* The American [[List of feminist poets|feminist poet]] and author [[Marge Piercy]] includes a poem titled "Laocoön is the name of the figure", in her collection ''Stone, Paper, Knife'' (1983), relating love lost and beginning.
* [[John Steinbeck]] references Laocoön in his American literary classic ''[[East of Eden (novel)|East of Eden]]'', referring to a picture of “Laocoön completely wrapped in snakes” when describing artwork hanging in classrooms at the Salinas schoolhouse.
* [[Sinclair Lewis]] references Laocoön in his novel ''[[Arrowsmith (novel)|Arrowsmith]]'', remarking of a family argument that "general composition [was] remarkably like the Laocoön."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lewis |first1=Sinclair |title=Arrowsmith |publisher=Project Gutenberg Australia |url=https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200131h.html |access-date=5 February 2023 |archive-date=27 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230227184533/http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200131h.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
*Postminimalist artist [[Eva Hesse]] named her first major freestanding sculpture—a tall wrapped framework with a tangle of cords—Laocoon (1966).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lippard |first1=Lucy |title=Eva Hesse |publisher=Da Capo |page=58}}</ref>
*Russian-American author [[Vladimir Nabokov]] makes a passing mention of Laocoön in his novel on totalitarianism, ''[[Bend Sinister (novel)|Bend Sinister]]''.
* [[Martin Amis]] makes a passing mention of Laocoön in his novel [[The Information (novel)|The Information]].

==Namesakes==
* [[3240 Laocoon]], an asteroid named after Laocoön

==Notes==
{{notelist}}
{{reflist|group=Note}}

==References==
=== Classical sources ===
Compiled by Tracy,<ref name=Tracy-1987 />{{rp|style=ama|page= 452, note&nbsp;3}} which includes a fragmentary line possibly by [[Nicander]]:
* {{cite book |author=[[Arctinus of Miletus]] |title=OCT Homer |at=5.107.23}}
* {{cite book |author=[[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]] |title=[[Roman Antiquities]] |at=1.48.2}}
* {{cite book |author=[[Gaius Julius Hyginus]] |title=[[Fabulae|Fabula]] |at=135}}
* {{cite book |author=[[Gaius Petronius Arbiter]] |title=[[Satyricon]] <!-- gussing ¿Satyricon?: title not cited but no other works listed --> |at=89}}
* {{cite book |author=[[Maurus Servius Honoratus]] |title=on ''Aeneid'' |at=2.201}}
* {{cite book |author=[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]] |title=[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Epitome]] |at=5.18}}
* {{cite book |author=[[Quintus Smyrnaeus]] |title=[[Posthomerica]] |at=12.445 ff}}
* {{cite book |author=[[John Tzetzes]] |title=[[Ad Lycophron]] |at=347}}

=== Citations ===
{{reflist|25em}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{refbegin|colwidth=25em|small=yes}}
* {{cite book |editor=Boardman, J. |editor-link=John Boardman (art historian) |year=1993 |title=The Oxford History of Classical Art |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-814386-9}}
* {{cite conference |author1=Gall, Dorothee |author2=Wolkenhauer, Anja (hg) |date=30 November 2006 |publication-date=2009 |book-title=Laokoon in Literatur und Kunst |conference=Symposions "Laokoon in Literatur und Kunst" vom 30 November 2006 |place=Bonn, DE |publisher=Universität Bonn |series=(Berlin; New York: Walter de Gruyter) Beiträge zur Altertumskunde |volume=254}}
* {{cite book |editor=Smith, R.R.R. |year=1991 |title=Hellenistic Sculpture: A handbook |publisher=Thames & Hudson |isbn=0500202494}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
* [https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/category/vpc-taxonomy-000191 The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Laocoön)]
* {{Commons category-inline|Laocoon}}
* {{Wikisource-inline|list=
** “[[s:Laocoon (Blake)|Laocoön]]” by [[William Blake]]
** {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Laocoon |short=x |noicon=x}}
** {{Cite NSRW|wstitle=Laöcoön |short=x |noicon=x}}
** {{Cite Americana|wstitle=Laocoön |short=x |noicon=x}}
** {{Cite Collier's|wstitle=Laocoön |short=x |noicon=x}}
}}
* {{cite web |title=Laocoon |website=The Digital Sculpture Project |url=http://www.digitalsculpture.org/laocoon/index.html |access-date=24 September 2013 |archive-date=27 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927172444/http://www.digitalsculpture.org/laocoon/index.html |url-status=live }}
* {{cite web |title=Towards a newest Laocoön |website=hasaqui.com |url=https://www.hasaqui.com/ |access-date=26 June 2018 |archive-date=26 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180626111058/https://www.hasaqui.com/ |url-status=live }}
{{Aeneid}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laocoon}}
[[Category:Mythological Greek seers]]
[[Category:Characters in the Aeneid]]
[[Category:Trojans]]
[[Category:Deeds of Apollo]]
[[Category:Deeds of Poseidon]]