It’s one of the world’s most famous statues and was re-discovered in Rome in 1506. The Laocoon, named after the main figure of the group, shows the Trojan priest Laocoon and his sons being attacked by serpents; punishment for Laocoon discouraging the Trojans from accepting the Trojan horse into the city (not in Homer’s account, but belonging to epic poems that took Homer as a starting point and elaborated his story). Part of the tragedy is, of course, that Laocoon was right in his prophecy, but malevolent Olympian gods and goddesses were working behind the scenes and Laocoon got caught in the crossfire. Few sculptures have generated so much art historical commentary. Pliny the Elder may have been the first to write about it in ancient Roman times. Though the present marble statue may be a copy of a bronze Greek original. How it got lost is a mystery. Perhaps Roman Christians, disgusted by it, hammered it to pieces and buried it, the fragments only to be discovered again 1100 years later.