Il riscatto di una vittima: l’episodio di Laocoonte (Verg. Aen. 2, 40-56; 199-233)

Abstract

In this contribute the philological analysis of the Virgilian Laocoon’s episode has been put side by side to the archeological and iconographical investigation, in order to try an answer to the difficulties that this episode gave in the past studies. The importance of this fundamental moment of the Aeneid is strongly connected to the myth of the foundation of Rome, especially for the sacrifice of Laocoon’s life and for the contraposition between the Trojan prince and the young Sinon, the symbol of the Greek dolus. The trick in all its expressions leads to the deformation of the reality, through a verbal process or a subterfuge; in the Virgilian context they are represented by Sinon’s lies and the episode of Wooden Horse, during the sack of Troy. Laocoon’s confused prophecies symbolize the truth, whereas the character of Sinon and the equus Troianus are the signs of the trick and the appearance: this opposition can be compared to the clash between the Greeks ideals of dolus and polytropía and the Roman and Trojan values of fides and firmitas.