THE DEATH OF LAOCOON AND TROY

Here another great fear (O miserable story!) terrifies our blind spirit. Laocoon, made by fortune a priest of Neptune, was sacrificing a fierce bull to an altar on the shore. Then twin mighty serpents, pressing from the sea, run to the shore from the insular. And now they were holding the lan and, eyes blazing with fire, were licking their mouths with their hissing tongues.
The whole of us flee; they aim at Laocoon and his son. At first, they catch and kill and devour the bodies of two small boys. They then snatch their brave father, who was running to his miserable boys, and hold and overcome with great coils. He could neither flee nor defend himself from his great wounds, and he himself just as the bull on the altar, raised horrible screams to the sky. At the same time the serpents flee, and seek shelter in the field ofkeen Menerava.
Because Laocoon had thrown a spear into the horse of Minerva, we have though that he had erred and had to pay the penalty; we have been ignorant of the truth. We opened the gate and received that horse into the city; and boys and girls-- O great country, O great gods, O Troy-- they rejoice to touch it. And we rejoice to miserable ourselves, too, to whom that day were the final and also to whom therewill be no relief.