The suspense is amazing – starting from a lovely peaceful scene across the sea, the interjected “Horresco referens” and only finding out at the end of the second line that the ‘gemini’ are in fact snakes. It would have compelled us to defile the Greek hiding-places with the sword,Īnd Troy would now be standing, and you, O high citadel of Priam, would remain! It stood there trembling, and with its womb reverberating, its hollow caverns resounded and gave out a groan,Īnd if the fates of the gods, if our minds had not been wrong, Into its side and into the belly of the beast, curved with its joints. Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks even when bearing gifts!Īfter speaking thus, with huge strength, he hurled his huge spear Or this machine has been built against our walls, to spy into our homesĪnd to come upon the city from above, or some trickery lurks here: do not trust the horse, Trojans,
That any gifts of the Greeks lack treachery? Is this how Ulysses is known to you?Įither enclosed in this wood, Greeks are lying hidden, Laocoon, burning with anger, ran down from the top of the citadel,Īnd from afar: “O wretched citizens, what madness so great is this?ĭo you believe the enemy has gone away? Or do you think Troiaque, nunc stares, Priamique arx alta, maneres.įirst, there before all, with a great crowd accompanying him, Impulerat ferro Argolicas foedare latebras, 55 Insonuere cavae gemitumque dedere cavernae.Įt, si fata deum, si mens non laeva fuisset, In latus inque feri curvam compagibus alvumĬontorsit: stetit illa tremens, uteroque recusso Sic fatus, validis ingentem viribus hastam 50 Quicquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentis.” Inspectura domos venturaque desuper urbi,Īut aliquis latet error equo ne credite, Teucri. Primus ibi ante omnis, magna comitante caterva, 40Įt procul: “O miseri, quae tanta insania, cives?Ĭreditis avectos hostis? Aut ulla putatisĭona carere dolis Danaum? Sic notus Ulixes?Īut hoc inclusi ligno occultantur Achivi, 45Īut haec in nostros fabricata est machina muros (You can hear this passage read aloud in Anne’s Powerpoint follow the link at the bottom of the page). Here we have the contrast between Laocoon’s blazing anger at the thought of the wooden horse being taken inside Troy and the use of hindsight as Aeneas describes the echoing monster, knowing that defeat is inevitable. Studying this passage for ‘O’ level many years ago is what made me choose to take ‘A’ Level Latin and begin my career as a Classics teacher.Īnne Dicks, Classics teacher (just retired!)