Laocoon

la-ok'o-on, in Greek mythology, a brother of Anchises, a priest of Apollo. He married against the will of the god Apollo. He and his two sons were attacked by serpents and strangled while attempting to sacrifice a bull at the altar of Poseidon. Virgil uses the legend in his Aeneid. He represents that the priest and his sons were strangled at the altar because they had warned the Trojans against admitting the wooden horse within their walls. In 1506 a marble group was found under rubbish near the baths of Titus in Rome. It was recognized at once as a long lost group of Laocoon to which frequent mention had been made in literature. It is now preserved in the Vatican. It represents father and sons struggling in the folds of the serpents. It is composed of several pieces of marble joined together so skillfully as to seem one. It is considered the production of three sculptors who worked at Rhodes. The right arm of Laocoon was lacking. A dispute arose over its restoration. The "Laocoon Controversy," as it is known in literature, was the subject of several scores of doctors' theses, that is to say, graduation essays, of the universities in Germany. Lessing devoted a volume to the Laocoon myth and group. It has now been decided that the arm of the father should be bent so that the hand is near the head. See Sculpture