Laocoön << lay AHK oh ahn >>, a Trojan priest, warned his people against the Greeks at Troy. The Trojans and the Greeks had been at war for 10 years. Pretending to give up the siege, the Greeks left a huge wooden horse outside the gates of Troy. Laocoön suspected treachery. He told the Trojans not to take the horse inside the city. “I fear the Greeks, even when bringing gifts,” he said.
Later, as Laocoön worshiped, two sea serpents attacked him and his sons and crushed them to death. Believing this to be a punishment from the gods, the Trojans rejected Laocoön’s warning and took the wooden horse into the city. Laocoön had been right. The horse concealed Greek soldiers who came out of the horse during the night and captured the city. Virgil describes the death of Laocoön in the second book of the Aeneid. See also Trojan War.
