The Trojans’ fatal error

Ancient writers differ in their accounts of why Laocoon was attacked. Euphorion wrote that the sun god Apollo sent the serpents because Laocoon and his wife had offended the deity by making love in sight of his statue. Other writers maintained that the sea god Poseidon, who was on the side of the Greeks, sent the serpents to destroy

Above: Laocoon by Spanish artist El Greco (1541—1614).The

Painting depicts the serpents’ attack on the priest and is one of the most famous visual representations of the episode.

Laocoon because the god feared that the Trojans would destroy the horse if the priest were not silenced. Regardless of who sent the serpents, their gruesome actions had the desired effect. The Trojans opened their arms to Sinon and took him and the wooden horse inside the city gates. That night, Sinon let the soldiers out of the horse and lit a beacon on the shore to signal to the other Greeks, waiting in their ships. The Greeks massacred the city’s sleeping inhabitants and captured Troy.

Composer Hector Berlioz (1803—1869) wrote the opera Les Troyens, in which Laocoon has a key role in the first act. Perhaps the most compelling reminder of Laocoon’s demise is a nearly eight-foot - (2.4-meter-) tall statue that now stands in the Vatican in Rome. Sometime between the second century BCE and the first century CE, three sculptors from Rhodes immortalized the anguish of Laocoon and his sons in marble. When fragments of it were discovered in the 16th century, renowned Italian sculptor Michelangelo (1475—1564) was asked to restore the statue, which has been widely lauded for its realism and emotional impact.

Deborah Thomas