Frescoes depicting Laocoön, the Trojan Horse and the city before its sacking by the Greeks, at the Archaeological Museum of Naples in Italy

Laocoön and his sons, Pompeii, House of Laocoön

Fresco – Water-based pigments on coating (132 × 72 cm) 35–45 AD

This fresco depicts a key episode of the Trojan War.

Laocoön and His Sons The Greeks had left the area aboard their ships leaving a large wooden horse on the shore.

The Trojans believed they were lifting the siege, and immediately asked the priest Laocoön to sacrifice a bull to the god of the sea so that he might stir up a storm during their return journey.

Laocoön was about to sacrifice the bull, when enormous serpents emerging from the sea came to strangle him and his two sons.

Laocoön, here dressed in purple, is attacked by a large snake whilst the bull flees knocking over the objects on the sacrificial altar; he rushes down the altar steps to rescue his sons, but the first is already dead, strangled by the snake which coils around the torso of the second, who is about to suffer the same fate.

On the right, the Trojans witness this terrible spectacle.

The Trojans interpreted it as a punishment against Laocoön, who had advised them to burn the horse abandoned by the Greeks, hence their fateful decision to bring it into their city.

The Trojan Horse, Pompeii, Casa di Cipius Pamphilus

Fresco – Water-based pigments on Coating (40 × 62 cm) 45–79 AD

The Trojans have gathered to welcome the wooden horse into their fortified city.

The scene unfolds in a solemn festive atmosphere by the light of torches carried by the gathered crowd admiring the horse pulled by men in white, cheered on by dancers expressing their enthusiasm.

Fresco of the Trojan Horse, Pompeii, House of Cipius Pamphilus, Archaeological Museum of Naples

The Trojan Horse The old King Priam sits at the foot of the column erected over the tomb of his son Hector; he does not look at the horse and does not share in the people’s joy.

On the left, the prophetess Cassandra is kneeling at the feet of the statue of the goddess Athena to beg her to prevent the impending disaster.

She is desperate that she was not listened to when she announced that Helen’s abduction would lead to war, and that the wooden horse was a trap filled with armed warriors.

On the left, mourning and anguish; on the right, the illusion of victory and the joy of peace restored.

Iliupersis, before the sack of Troy, Pompeii, House IX 7, 16

Iliupersis fresco, before the sack of Troy, Pompeii, House IX 7, 16, Archaeological Museum of Naples