Laocoon2.0101_Berryman

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ClCv241

Mastery

MythMatters

Vatican Laocoon
Ver. Aen. 2.40-56, 190-240
Apollodorus Libr. E. 5.17-18

Cliﬀord K. Berryman, "Laocoon 1938” political cartoon for The Washington Evening Star

Berryman comments upon a historical matter, making it epic in its proportions.

in Grafton, Most, and Settis, The Classical Tradition, s.v. "parodies"

Political cartoon depicting Uncle Sam, entwined by "ISOLATION" snakes, with two men advocating "HELP THEM!" and "DO NOTHING!

Vergil, Aeneid 2.199-‐233 tells the alarming death of Laocoon, the Trojan priest of Neptune who is overwhelmed with his sons by twin snakes that arrive from Tenedos. Laocoon, shortly before (line 49) had warned the Trojans to be on their guard. He looked at the Trojan Horse and warned famously: “Quidquid id est, 5meo Danaos et dona feren5s!” (Whatever this is, I fear the Greeks even when they bring gi^s.) Vergil’s sons of Laocoon are voiceless. The marble sculpture group now in the Va5can Museums was discovered in situ within Nero’s Golden House on 14 January 1506. It may be the same piece described anciently by Pliny the Elder (Hist. nat. 36.37) as the work of the Rhodians Hagesandros, Athanodoros, and Polydoros.

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
The present resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1400 – 1990’s, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University Press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.