'Laokoon is perhaps Lessing's best known work outside Germany and it has had a world-wide influence. It takes its name from the famous statue discovered at Rome in the 16th century. It analyses the difference between the sculptor's treatment of Laokoon wrestling with the serpents and Virgil's treatment of the same theme, and from there goes on to discuss the limits and limitations of all the arts ... His exposition of the themes of Homer and Sophocles is especially effective, and he opened up a new prospect in the appreciation of Greek literature' (Printing and the Mind of Man, no. 213).