the knots asunder, his priestly fillets all bedewed with gore
and black poison, and raising all the while dreadful cries
to heaven—like the bellowing, when a wounded bull darts
away from the altar, dashing off from his neck the ill-aimed
axe. But the two serpents escape glidingly to the
temple top, making for the height where ruthless Tritonia 5
is enthroned, and there shelter themselves under the goddess’s
feet and the round of her shield. Then, indeed,
every breast is cowed and thrilled through by a new and
strange terror—every voice cries that Laocoon has been