Laocoön

Trust not the horse, Trojans!  Regardless of what it is, I fear Greeks even when they bear gifts.
~ Laocoön
(as attributed by Virgil, c. 29–19 B. C. E.)

Laocoön (Ancient Greek: Λαοκόων), the son of Acoetes, is a figure in Greek and Roman mythology and the Epic Cycle.  He was a Trojan priest who was attacked, with his two sons, by giant serpents sent by the gods.  In Virgil's Aeneid, he was a priest of Poseidon (or Neptune for the Romans), who was killed with both of his sons after attempting to expose the ruse of the Trojan Horse by striking it with a spear, while in Sophocles, he was a priest of Apollo, who should have been celibate but had married.

Quotes attributed to Laocoön

• o miseri, quae tanta insania, ciues?
  creditis auectos hostis? aut ulla putatis
  dona carere dolis Danaum? sic notus Vlixes?
  aut hoc inclusi ligno occultantur Achiui,
  aut haec in nostros fabricata est machina muros,
  inspectura domos uenturaque desuper urbi,
  aut aliquis latet error; equo ne credite, Teucri.
  quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentis.
  • Virgil, Book II of Aeneid (c. 29–19 B.C.E.), lines 42–49.
  • A literal translation of the emboldened text reads:
    • Trust not the horse, Trojans!
      Regardless of what it is, I fear Greeks even when they bear gifts.
  • It has been paraphrased in English as the proverb:
    • Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.
  • Other translations:
    • O wretched countrymen! what fury reigns?
      What more than madness has possess'd your brains?
      Think you the Grecians from your coasts are gone?
      And are Ulysses' arts no better known?
      This hollow fabric either must inclose,
      Within its blind recess, our secret foes;
      Or 'tis an engine rais'd above the town,
      T' o'erlook the walls, and then to batter down.
      Somewhat is sure design'd, by fraud or force:
      Trust not their presents, nor admit the horse.
      • Virgil, Book II of Aeneid in The Works of Virgil, trans. John Dryden (1697), lines 54–63.
    • Ah, wretched citizens, what height of madness is this?  Believe you the foe is gone? or think you any Grecian gift is free of treachery? is it thus we know Ulysses?  Either Achaeans are hid in this cage of wood, or the engine is fashioned against our walls to overlook the houses and descend upon the city; some delusion lurks there: trust not the horse, O Trojans.  Be it what it may, I fear the Grecians even when they offer gifts.
      • Virgil, "The Story of the Sack of Troy," Book Second of The Aeneid of Virgil, trans. J. W. Mackail (Macmillan and Co.: London, 1885), p. 25.
    • "O unhappy men!
      "What madness is this?  Who deems our foemen fled?
      "Think ye the gifts of Greece can lack for guile?
      "Have ye not known Ulysses?  The Achæan
      "Hides, caged in yonder beams; or this is reared
      "For engin'ry on our proud battlements,
      "To spy upon our roof-tops, or descend
      "In ruin on the city.  'T is a snare.
      "Trust not this horse, O Troy, whate'er it bode!
      "I fear the Greeks, though gift on gift they bear."
      • Virgil, Book II of The Æneid of Virgil, trans. Theodore C. Williams (Houghton Mifflin Company: Boston and New York, 1908), p. 40, lines 57–66.

Quotes about Laocoön

• Laocoön, and her two sons
  Pressured storm, tried to move
  No other more, emotion bound
  Martyred, misconstrued
  • R.E.M., "Laughing," Murmur (I.R.S. Records, 12 April 1983), tr. 3.

External links

• Texts on Wikisource:
  • "Laocoön" by William Blake (c. 1826–7).
  • "Laöcoön", The New Student's Reference Work (1914).
  • "Laocoön", Encyclopedia Americana (1920).
  • "Laocoön", Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921).