Laius, king of Thebes,
husband of Jocasta, and father of Oedipus. Having been told by the oracle
at Delphi that he would be killed by his own son, Laius exposed the newborn
child on a mountainside. A shepherd rescued the child, however, and adopted
him. The prophecy was fulfilled when Oedipus as a young man unknowingly
killed his father.
Laocoön, priest
of Apollo, god of the sun, or of Poseidon, god of the sea. In the last
year of the Trojan War, the Greeks prepared a giant wooden horse, which
they pretended was a votive offering to the goddess Athena, but which was
in reality a hiding place for Greek soldiers. Laocoön, fearing a ruse,
vainly urged the Trojan leaders to destroy the gift, warning "I fear the
Greeks even when they come bearing gifts." While the people were trying
to decide if they should risk bringing the horse inside the city walls
for the sake of the favorable omens supposedly connected with it, Poseidon,
the divinity most bitter toward Troy, sent two fearful sea serpents swimming
to the land. Advancing straight to the spot where Laocoön stood with
his two sons, the serpents wrapped their coils around the children. Laocoön
struggled to tear them away, but they overpowered him and strangled him
and his sons. The Trojans, convinced that this was a signal from heaven
to ignore Laocoön's advice, brought the horse within the city walls
and thus directly contributed to their own destruction. The most famous
literary interpretation of the Laocoön legend is in Vergil's Aeneid.
The most famous representation in art is a marble sculpture of the priest
and his sons being crushed in the coils of the serpents; this group, known
simply as Laocoön dates from the 1st century BC, and is now in the
Vatican in Rome.
Laodamia, wife of the
Thessalian commander Protesilaus, the first Greek slain when the Greek
fleet reached the coast of Troy in the Trojan War. When the news of her
husband's death reached Laodamia, she implored the gods to let her see
him once again if only for a short time. Her pleas were answered, and the
god Hermes led her husband back from the underworld for a 3-hour visit.
When it came time for him to return, however, Laodamia could not bear to
give him up. She killed herself and returned with her husband to the underworld.
Laomedon, king of Troy
and father of Priam, later king of Troy. At the command of the god Zeus,
Poseidon, god of the sea, and Apollo, god of the sun, built for Laomedon
the walls of Troy. When the walls were finished, however, Laomedon refused
to pay them the wages agreed on, and Poseidon sent a sea serpent to ravage
the country. To appease the monster, the desperate Laomedon agreed to sacrifice
his daughter Hesione. As the maiden sat on the shore waiting to be devoured,
she was rescued by the hero Hercules. In return for saving Hesione, Laomedon
had promised Hercules the immortal horses that Zeus had given to his grandfather.
But when Hercules had slain the monster, Laomedon refused to keep his promise.
Hercules then sacked the city and killed the king.
Leda, wife of Tyndareus,
king of Sparta, and the mother of Castor and Polydeuces, Clytemnestra,
and Helen of Troy. After the god Zeus had wooed her in the guise of a swan,
she laid two eggs. From one were hatched Pollux and Helen, who were immortal
children of Zeus, and from the other Castor and Clytemnestra, who were
mortal children of Tyndareus.
Lethe, the river of forgetfulness,
situated in the underworld. The spirits of the dead drank from its waters
to forget the sorrows of their earthly life before entering Elysium. When
the Trojan prince Aeneas visited the world of the dead, he found a great
number of souls wandering on the banks of the stream. His father, Anchises,
with whom he was joyously reunited, told him that before these spirits
could live again in the world above, they must drink of the river of oblivion
to forget the happiness they had experienced in Elysium.
Leto, daughter of the Titans
Phoebe and Coeus, and the mother of Artemis, goddess of the bow and of
hunting. She was loved by the god Zeus, who, fearing the jealousy of his
wife, Hera, banished Leto when she was about to bear his child. All countries
and islands were also afraid of Hera's wrath and refused the desperate
Leto a home where her child could be born. Finally, in her wanderings,
she set foot on a small island floating in the Aegean Sea. The island,
which was called Delos, was a rocky, barren place, but when Leto reached
it and asked for refuge, it welcomed her hospitably. At that moment four
great pillars rose from the bottom of the sea to hold the island firmly
moored forever after.
