3-053-630 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Equo Ne Credite Teucri!" by Briton Riviere, in the exhibition at the Dudley Gallery, 1873. 'To realise the allusion of the title of this amusing picture by Mr. Briton Riviere (which we engrave)...it is not necessary to recount the whole story of the capture of Troy as told by AEneas to Queen Dido. Readers of Virgil will remember the circumstances under which the words quoted occur. The Greeks pretended to have raised the siege and fled, leaving behind them in their haste the colossal horse...What to do with the monster the Trojans (or Teucri, as they were called, after the name of their founder) knew not...Laocoon, the priest, rushed from the citadel, exclaiming, "What madness do I hear? O misguided citizens, beware! Some wile is here; trust not the horse, O ye Teucri! Mischief it bodes. Greeks and their gifts I fear." So, in a very droll sort of paraphrase, the artist addresses these little Teucri, as they try to maintain their seat on the back of that great ungainly brute...O ye brave little Trojans! He is halting and stumbling now; he may bolt presently...How resentfully he pulls at the cord, and how little does your puny strength avail to thwart the gigantic brute, O thou too daring and trustful chief of the Lilliputian Trojans!'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.