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Byron. STORY.
A PLASTIC TRAGEDY.
Laocoon was a priest of Apollo at Troy and endeavored unsuccessfully to dissuade the Trojans from admitting into their gates the wooden horse which the Greeks gave out was intended as a propitiatory offering to Minerva, but in fact was filled with AchÆan chiefs who, by means of this strategem, obtained entrance into the doomed city. Sinon, who had been left behind when the Greeks pretended to sail away, persuaded the Trojans that the horse would prove a blessing and they drew it inside the gates.
“Oh, the enchanting words of that base slave,
Made them to think Epeu’s pine-tree horse
A sacrifice to appease Minerva’s wrath.”
—Marlowe.
Laocoon also struck his spear into the side of the monster. His words and acts so offended Minerva that she sent two serpents out of the sea to destroy him and his sons. They were speedily enveloped in the creatures’ slimy folds and died in great agony.
INTERPRETATION.
Max Muller says that the meaning or root of the name Laocoon is symbolic of Sin the Throttler. The strange fate of Laocoon was readily believed to be a punishment for the violence he had done the sacred horse.
ART.
“Laocoon! thou great embodiment
Of human life and human history!
Thou record of the past, thou prophecy
Of the sad future, thou majestic voice,
Pealing along the ages from old time!
Thou wail of agonized humanity!
There lives no thought in marble like to thee!
Thou hast no kindred in the Vatican,
But standest separate among the dreams
Of old mythologies—alone—alone!”
—J.G. Holland.
This group is wonderful as a work of sculpture and one of the most celebrated pieces in existence. It was found in the excavations of the Baths of Titus, Rome, in 1506, and was at once placed in the Belvedere of the Vatican, where it has ever since remained. The period of the statue is not definitely known.
The right arm of the father has been incorrectly restored. It is thought that it was originally bent in such a way that the hand was near the back of the head as then the general outline of the group would be pyramidal, and the summit of the pyramid would be the father’s head.
The three figures represent three acts of the tragedy. The eldest son is still unhurt, and if we did not know the story we might think his escape possible.
In the father is seen the highest tension of forces to free himself from the coils of the serpents. The straining muscles, the expanded chest and head thrown upward and backward, show his terrible effort.
The struggles of the younger son are weak and pitiable, showing that resistance is at an end.
The expression of physical and emotional pain in this statue is so materialistic as to be repulsive to sensitive natures. The scene is literally too sensational for sculpture. “Its pathology overpowers its pathos.”
