MUSIC VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbYy_CcGX8M
"Our blood drained away at the sight; we broke and ran. The serpents
Went straight for Laocoön. First, each snake knotted itself
Round the body of one of Laocoön’s small sons, hugging him tight
In its coils, and cropped the piteous flesh with its fangs. Next thing,
They fastened upon Laocoön, as he hurried, weapon in hand,
To help the boys, and lashed him up in their giant whorls.
With a double grip round his waist and his neck, the scaly creatures
Embrace him, their heads and throats powerfully poised above him.
All the while his hands are struggling to break their knots,
His priestly headband is spattered with blood and pitchy venom;
All the while, his appalling cries go up to heaven –
A bellowing, such as you hear when a wounded bull escapes from
The altar, after it’s shrugged off an ill-aimed blow at its neck."
-Virgil, Aeneid