away, as if for a final departure.  The Trojans, seeing the encampment broken up and the fleet gone, concluded the enemy to have abandoned the siege.  The gates were thrown open, and the whole population issued forth rejoicing at the long-prohibited liberty of passing freely over the scene of the late encampment.  The great horse was the chief object of curiosity.  All wondered what it could be for.  Some recommended to take it into the city as a trophy; others felt afraid of it.

While they hesitate, Laocoon, the priest of Neptune exclaims, “What madness, citizens, is this?  Have you not learned enough of Grecian fraud to be on your guard against it?  For my part, I fear the Greeks even when they offer gifts.” [Footnote:  See Proverbial Expressions.] So saying he threw his lance at the horse’s side.  It struck, and a hollow sound reverberated like a groan.  Then perhaps the people might have taken his advice and destroyed the fatal horse and all its contents; but just at that moment a group of people appeared, dragging forward one who seemed a prisoner and a Greek.  Stupefied with terror, he was brought before the chiefs, who reassured him, promising that his life should be spared on condition of his returning true answers to the questions asked him.  He informed them that he was a Greek, Sinon by name, and that in consequence of the malice of Ulysses he had been left behind by his countrymen at their departure.  With regard to the wooden horse, he told them that it was a propitiatory offering to Minerva, and made so huge for the express purpose of preventing its being carried within the city; for Calchas the prophet had told them that if the Trojans took possession of it they would assuredly triumph over the Greeks.  This language turned the tide of the people’s feelings and they began to think how they might best secure the monstrous horse and the favorable auguries connected with it, when suddenly a prodigy occurred which left no room to doubt.  There appeared, advancing over the sea, two immense serpents.  They came upon the land, and the crowd fled in all directions.  The serpents advanced directly to the spot where Laocoon stood with his two sons.  They first attacked the children, winding round their bodies and breathing their pestilential breath in their faces.  The father, attempting to rescue them, is next seized and involved in the serpents’ coils.  He struggles to tear them away, but they overpower all his efforts and strangle him and the children in their poisonous folds.  This event was regarded as a clear indication of the displeasure of the gods at Laocoon’s irreverent treatment of the wooden horse, which they no longer hesitated to regard as a sacred object, and prepared to introduce with due solemnity into the city.  This was done with songs and triumphal acclamations, and the day closed with festivity.  In the night the armed men who were enclosed in the body of the horse, being let out by the traitor Sinon, opened the gates of the city to their friends, who had returned under cover of the night.  The city was set on fire; the people, overcome with feasting and sleep, put to the sword, and Troy completely subdued.