Laocoon

Family: The Trojans · Role: Trojan · First appears: Book XII · Part 3

In Book XII, Laocoon warned the Trojans that the Horse was a deadly fraud and urged them to burn it. Athena struck him blind, but he continued to press his countrymen to destroy the Horse; they refused, fearing the Gods’ wrath, and dragged Epeius’ work into Troy. Laocoon was left with his sons, whom the Goddess’s decree doomed. At Pergamus, a cenotaph was raised for them, and their blind father wept over it.

Relationship record

Life events

• Laocoon warned that the Horse was a deadly fraud and urged the Trojans to burn it.(Book XII · Part 3)
  • “Wisely he spake: ‘A deadly fraud is this,’ He said, ‘devised by the Achaean chiefs!’ And cried to all straightway to burn the Horse, And know if aught within its timbers lurked.”
• Athena struck Laocoon blind.(Book XII · Part 3)
  • With: Athena
  • “Then did the Goddess strike him utterly blind. Stared his fixed eyeballs white from pits of blood;”
• The Trojans led the Horse into Troy despite Laocoon's continued warning to burn it.(Book XII · Part 3 · 📍 Troy)
  • “But still Laocoon ceased not to exhort His countrymen to burn the Horse with fire: They would not hear, for dread of the Gods' wrath.”
• The sons were commemorated with a cenotaph, over which their blind father wept.(Book XII · Part 3 · 📍 Pergamus)
  • With: Laocoon's sons
  • “Gathered, and reared a cenotaph for those Who miserably had perished. Over it Their father from his blind eyes rained the tears:”

Book XII · Part 3

• with Athena (Athena blinds Laocoon.) “Then did the Goddess strike him utterly blind.”
• with Epeius (Epeius made the Horse that the Trojans dragged into the city.) “Dragged up unto their city their own doom, Epeius' work.”
• enemies with Athena (Athena acts against Laocoon.) “Athena, fiercely wroth With him, the Trojans, and their city, shook Earth's deep foundations 'neath Laocoon's feet.”
• with Epeius (Epeius made the wooden horse that the Trojans dragged into the city.) “With multitudinous tug and strain, as when Down to the sea young men sore-labouring drag A ship; hard-crushed the stubborn rollers groan, As, sliding with weird shrieks, the keel descends Into the sea-surge; so that host with toil Dragged up unto their city their own doom, Epeius' work.”
• child: Laocoon's sons “Alone was left Laocoon with his sons, For death's doom and the Goddess chained their feet.”

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Extracted from the original text of The Fall of Troy. Made with Rho MD.