Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes
Video in Latin | The representation of the desperate cry of Laocoön
It is the most famous sculptural group of antiquity. It was discovered by chance in Rome, in a vineyard on the Oppian Hill near Nero's Domus Aurea. It was January 14, 1506 and Pope Julius II della Rovere sent there Michelangelo and Giuliano da Sangallo, who immediately recognized the Laocoön sculptural group mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his "Naturalis Historia".
The Uffizi one is an exceptional copy executed a few years later by Baccio Bandinelli. Inspired by the figure of the Trojan priest who had predicted the truth about the famous story of the horse, this myth is told by Vergil in the second book of his Aeneid where he says the famous words: "Timaeus Danaos et dona ferentes", that is, "I fear the Greeks, especially when they bring gifts".
The marble group features the punishment of Athena, patroness of the Greeks, who had sent two giant snakes against Trojan Laocoön and his children crying in the vain attempt to save themselves.
