A very recent tragedy

Laocoön and His Sons at the Legion of Honor

2021

ABC7News

Photo from 2007 of Laocoön and His Sons

This copy of the statue stands outside on the grounds of San Francisco's Palace of the Legion of Honor. 

Laocoön and His Sons
Athanadoros, Hagesandros, and Polydoros of Rhodes
early 1st century

One of the major discoveries of the Italian Renaissance, this sculptural grouping was lost for centuries but found in 1506 near Rome, by a farmer plowing a field in the ruins of Titus' palace. It depicts an event in Vergil's Aeneid (Book 2). Michelangelo (1475-1564) had been in Rome twice, (1505-06) to start work on the Tomb of Pope Julius II; on that visit he and the pope, upon hearing the news of the Laocoön discovery, rode by horseback through the countyside of Rome, to witness the unearthing of the ancient Laocoön Group. Realizing that the sculpture was indeed the long lost famous Laocoön, it was mounted on a special wagon and brought back into Rome with a traditional hero¹s welcome. Along with the city turning out for the 'ticker tape parade',there were three days of citywide celebrations.

Photo from 2010

The side of the Legion of Honor museum where the statue of Laocoön and His Sons stands.

Nighttime at the Legion of Honor

2010

Laocoön and His Sons at the Legion of Honor

2021

The vandals chopped off the heads of the two sons. Part of Laocoön's leg is also missing.

The photo was shot through a narrow opening at a corner of the cyclone fence.

Laocoön's (vandalized and now headless) son

Laocoön's (vandalized and now headless) son

ARTNews

Laocoön's vandalized and fragmented foot, now missing the leg

Laocoön and His Sons

at the Legion of Honor

2021

Laocoön and His Sons

2021

Laocoön's (vandalized and now headless) son

SFist

Laocoön's (vandalized and now headless) son

Laocoön and His Sons at the Legion of Honor

2021

Lincoln Park

2010

Laocoön and His Sons at the Legion of Honor

2006

Detail of Laocoön and His Sons

2006

Detail of Laocoön and His Sons at the Legion of Honor

2013

Entrance to the Legion of Honor at Lincoln Park in San Francisco

2010

Legion of Honor at Lincoln Park in San Francisco

2010

Laocoön in Greek Mythology

Laocoön was an intriguing character in Greek mythology. He played a small but significant role in the notorious Trojan War, and his memorable contributions to myth were celebrated in this famous Hellenistic statue. Read on to learn more about this legendary figure.

According to ancient authors, Laocoön was a blind Trojan priest of Poseidon (note, however, that some sources claim that he was instead one of Apollo's priests). In mythology, Laocoön was the brother of the hero Anchises and son of Capys. One of our best sources for the story of Laocoön is found in Virgil's Aeneid. In this epic tale, the Roman poet Virgil describes the dramatic scene in which the Trojans discover an enormous Wooden Horse standing outside the city of Troy. The prescient priest Laocoön warns against bringing the gigantic Horse into Troy in a famous speech:

"'O my poor people,
Men of Troy, what madness has come over you?
Can you believe the enemy truly gone?
A gift from the Danaans, and no ruse?
Is that Ulysses' way, as you have known him?
Achaeans must be hiding in this timber,
Or it was built to butt against our walls,
Peer over them into our houses, pelt
The city from the sky. Some crookedness
Is in this thing. Have no faith in the horse!
Whatever it is, even when Greeks bring gifts
I fear them, gifts and all.'"
(Virgil, The Aeneid, Book II, 59-70)

Immediately after saying these words, Virgil has Laocoön hurl his spear into the flank of the Wooden Horse. However, this gesture was to come back to haunt Laocoön. For soon after this incident, while the priest is sacrificing to his god Poseidon, a pair of giant sea serpents emerge from the sea and envelope both Laocoön and his two sons (this tragic scene is immortalized in the Hellenistic image). The Trojans interpret this grotesque punishment as a sign that Laocoön offended the gods - either Athena or Poseidon in particular - for attacking the Wooden Horse. In the end, the Horse is brought into Troy, which is a fatal mistake and seals the city's doom.

The author Gray Brechin sent this to me in response to receiving my photo newsletter about the vandalized Laocoön.

The beginning is bloodless, the evidence circumstantial. Molecular civil war starts unnoticed; there is no general mobilization. The amount of rubbish on the side of the streets increases gradually. Piles of syringes and broken bottles appear in the park. Monotonous graffiti is daubed on the walls, its only message one of autism. Classroom furniture is smashed up, front gardens stink of shit and urine — fine, muted declarations of war which any experienced city-dweller can interpret. Soon, the signs become clearer. Tyres are slashed, emergency telephones have their cables cut, cars are set on fire. In one spontaneous incident after another, rage is vented on anything undamaged, hate turns on anything that works, and forms an insoluble amalgam with self-hate.

Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Civil Wars: From L.A. to Bosnia, New York (The New Press), 1994.