Quintus Smyrnaeus

Quintus Smyrnaeus's account of the Laocoön episode appears in Book 12 of the τά μεθ Ὂμηρον (tà meth' Hómēron, Posthomerica, 3rd century CE; lines 390&ndas;497).^{[note 1]}. In it, he appears to reject the account of events surrounding Troy's fall by Virgil: the "thesis of the divinely appointed mission of Rome" is, as Arthur Young noted, not central for the Greek poet Quintus.^{[note 2]}

It is not easy to align Quintus's narrative with any earlier telling of Laocoön's story. Quintus's language, versification, and general spirit derive from Homer, but his subject matter (including Laocoön's fate) does not. Moreover, Quintus makes a great deal more of Laocoön's part than most of his predecessors.

Laocoön arrives on the scene to challenge Sinon's claims about the wooden horse: he foresees a trick of the Achaean chiefs, and urges the Trojans to burn the horse. They are set to follow his advice but, to prevent this, Athena (angry with Laocoön, the Trojans, and their city, for this presumption) causes an earthquake which damages Laocoön's eyesight. From these events, the Trojan onlookers believe Laocoön has been punished for sinning against Athena and decide against his advice. Laocoön is rendered only an object of pity, his view of the situation not to be trusted.

Laocoön continues to urge against admitting the horse, for which Athena causes him to become utterly blind&mdas;an ironic reflection on his name which is etymologically derived from laos ("people") + koeo ("I mark, perceive"). Upon this, the Trojans, fearing that Laocoön has sinned in opposing Sinon, quickly tear down the walls of Troy and drag the horse into the city.

It is only after this, Laocoön having continued to exhort the Trojans to burn the horse, that Athena sends two monstrous serpents from Calydna^{[note 3]} (offspring of the serpentine giant Typhon) to attack him and his sons. The serpents cause the earth to quake once more as they approach Troy, and Laocoön is forced to stand by, sightless and powerless to help, as they devour his two sons.

Quintus stresses the human tragedy: when a memorial is made for Laocoön's sons, their father, who survives, weeps from his blind eyes, and their mother wails over their empty tomb and mourns her husband's foolishness in incurring the wrath of the gods. This forms the prelude to a stream of other fearful omens that assault the Trojans before the ruin of Troy.

Note 1. Posthomerica 12.353–499. [back to text]

Note 2. Arthur M. Young, Troy and Her Legend (1948; Westport: Greenwood Press, 1971), p. 45. [back to text]

Note 3. See also entry for Bacchylides. [back to text]