Course Readings: Web Gallery

Laocoön and His Sons (ca. 150 BC)

Emperor Titus of Rome (r. 79-81 AD) commissioned this sculpture for his palace. Discovered in 1506 in the presence of Michelangelo, it was a Roman copy of a Greek original made sometime in the second century BC.

According to myth, after many years of fighting, the Greeks had apparently grown tired of besieging Troy. They announced that they would leave behind the gift of a large wooden horse. Laocoön, a priest in Troy, warned the Trojans against allowing the Greeks to bring this gift within the city walls. His fellow citizens ignored him with fatal results—Greek soldiers concealed within this famous "Trojan Horse" succeeded in entering Troy and ending their siege of the city. The Greek gods who favored Greek victory decided to punish Laocoön by sending sea serpents against him. As he sacrificed at the altar with his two sons, the sea serpents strangled all three. This piece represents his final struggle against the ferocious beasts.

This subject matter had special meaning for the Romans—in myth, Aeneas had escaped the destruction of Troy in order to found Rome.