Don’t you hate it when you know you’re right but nobody listens to you? Spare a thought for the Trojan priest Laocoön, who knew something was fishy about the giant wooden horse wheeled into the city of

Don’t you hate it when you know you’re right but nobody listens to you? Spare a thought for the Trojan priest Laocoön, who knew something was fishy about the giant wooden horse wheeled into the city of Troy as a victory trophy after the apparent retreat of the Greeks during the Trojan war. After his initial call for the horse to be burned in case it was a ruse was ignored, the goddess Athena sent sea serpents to shut him and his sons up for good.

So said, so done, and Laocoön met his grisly end, as immortalised in this jaw-dropping sculpture in the Vatican museums. The wooden horse, of course, concealed an elite corps of Greek warriors, who soon laid waste to the city and finally claimed victory in the most famous war of ancient mythology.