Laocoön and His Sons
A monumental marble sculpture depicting the Trojan priest Laocoön and his two sons being strangled by sea serpents sent by the gods
The Meaning of Laocoön and His Sons
The sculpture depicts one of the most harrowing moments in the Trojan War cycle. Laocoön, a priest of Apollo in Troy, warned the Trojans not to accept the wooden horse left by the Greeks. He famously declared that he feared Greeks even bearing gifts. In response, the gods — either Athena or Poseidon, depending on the source — sent two enormous sea serpents from the deep to destroy him and his sons. The marble group, carved from a single block, captures the three figures in their final agony, muscles straining against the coils. Pliny the Elder attributed the work to three sculptors from Rhodes: Agesander, Athenodoros, and Polydoros. Rediscovered in Rome in 1506, the sculpture profoundly influenced Michelangelo and the development of Renaissance art. It now stands in the Vatican Museums as one of the most studied works of antiquity.
Parents
None recorded
Symbols
Fun Fact
When the statue was unearthed in a Roman vineyard in 1506, Michelangelo rushed to the excavation site to witness the discovery firsthand
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