Per Aspera Ad Astra

— George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss

Trojan Warrior fighting the Giant Serpent. As the Greeks were unable to take Troy by force, they pretended to sail home, leaving behind the wooden horse. While the Trojans were assembled around the horse, deliberating whether they should draw it into their city or destroy it, Laocoon hastened to them from the city, and loudly cautioned them against the danger which it might bring upon them. While saying this he thrust his lance into the side of the horse. When Laocoon was preparing to sacrifice a bull to Poseidon, suddenly two fearful serpents were seen swimming towards the Trojan coast from Tenedos. They rushed towards Laocoon, who, while all the people took to flight, remained with his two sons standing by the altar of the god. The serpents first entwined the two boys, and then the father, who went to the assistance of his children, and all three were killed. The serpents then hastened to the acropolis of Troy, and disappeared behind the shield of Tritonis. The reason why Laocoon suffered this fearful death is differently stated. According to Virgil, the Trojans thought that it was because he had run his lance into the side of the horse, but according to others because, contrary to the will of Apollo, he had married and begotten children, or because Poseidon, being hostile to the Trojans, wanted to show to the Trojans in the person of Laocoon what fate all of them deserved.

— Arundhati Roy, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

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— Sylvia Plath, from The Letters of Sylvia Plath Vol. I: 1940-1956 (via lunamonchtuna)

— Jorge Luis Borges, “The Theme of the Traitor and the Hero”