Laocoon

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Laocoon \La*oc"o*["o]n\, prop. n. [L., fr. Gr. ? ]
     1. (Class. Myth.) A priest of Apollo, during the Trojan war.
        (See 2.)
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Sculp.) A marble group in the Vatican at Rome,


        representing the priest Laoco["o]n, with his sons,
        infolded in the coils of two serpents, as described by
        Virgil.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  Laocoon
       n : (Greek mythology) the priest of Apollo who warned the
           Trojans to beware of Greeks bearing gifts when they
           wanted to accept the Trojan Horse; a god who favored the
           Greeks (Poseidon or Athena) sent snakes who coiled around
           Laocoon and his two twin sons killing them

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  LAOCOON, n.  A famous piece of antique scripture representing a priest
  of that name and his two sons in the folds of two enormous serpents. 
  The skill and diligence with which the old man and lads support the
  serpents and keep them up to their work have been justly regarded as
  one of the noblest artistic illustrations of the mastery of human
  intelligence over brute inertia.