Overwhelmed by the pain of this world

In January 1506, while digging in a field just inside the already 2,000-year-old walls of Rome, workers found a group of ancient statues consisting of a bearded man flanked by two small boys, all three of which are being attacked by snakes.

Experts sent by Pope Julius II quickly recognized it as a sculpture mentioned 1,500 years earlier by the Roman writer Pliny the Elder called the Laocoön (pronounced luh-AW-koh-awn). The pope purchased the piece and put it on display. The Laocoön was the first piece in what has become the second-most-­visited museum complex in the world: the Vatican Museums. Today visitors to the Vatican pass by it on their way to the Sistine Chapel, largely unaware of its significance. The Laocoön is a masterpiece that, through its style and story, reveals how pre-Christian culture wrestled with one of life’s most difficult questions.

The style of the statue is Greek made famous by artists in Pergamum. Pergamum, in modern-day Turkey, was the capital of one of the kingdoms left over after Alexander the Great’s empire fell apart. It’s probably most famous for being the city referred to in the Book of Revelation as the place “where Satan dwells.” In fact, the main altar in Pergamum may be what John is referring to in Revelation 2:13 as “Satan’s throne.” On the altar, one panel shows the goddess Athena fighting against a giant, who looks remarkably similar to our Laocoön.

LEFT TO RIGHT: Pergamon Altar detail of Alcyoneus; Laocoön detail. Alcyoneus detail: World History Archive/Alamy; Laocoön detail: Lanmas/Alamy

Pergamum became an important center of politics, learning, religion, and the arts. The artists in Pergamum rejected the idealized beauty, perfection of form, and serene calm that were the hallmarks of Classical Greek sculpture. Instead, the Pergamene style embraced realistic portrayals of the human body and raw expression of human emotion, both of which the Laocoön statue has in abundance.

While the style is Greek, the story is Roman. It comes from Book 2 of Vergil’s epic, The Aeneid. Laocoön is a priest of Neptune who tried to warn the Trojans that the giant wooden horse left on the beach by the Greeks was a trap. Laocoön utters those famous words, “I fear the Greeks even bearing gifts,” before hurling a spear into the side of the Trojan Horse. In response, the gods send two snakes out of the sea to kill Laocoön and his two sons. The Trojans, interpreting Laocoön’s death as his punishment for violating the sacred horse, immediately bring the horse into the city. In reality, Laocoön was punished for trying to expose the gods’ plan to destroy Troy. Like Job of the Bible, Laocoön suffered not for being evil, but for being good.

Pergamon Altar, east frieze: Athena against the giant Alcyoneus Prisma Archivo/Alamy

Both the style and the story make the Laocoön an ideal vehicle for wrestling with one of life’s most enduring questions: the problem of evil. The Laocoön shows a man suffering for opposing the gods. His sons are collateral damage to the gods’ desire to destroy him. The boys look not to heaven but to their father, hoping for help, confused as to why this is happening. In the struggle of Laocoön and his sons, you see the ugly reality of the shared human experience of suffering.

This sculpture is a question waiting for an answer. In its pagan context, there is no hope of redemption, no reward for endurance, no promise of deliverance. In the faces of Laocoön and his sons one sees confused bewilderment at why bad things happen. The statue cries out for an answer. How ironic that it’s now housed in a church, since only Christianity offers the ultimate solution to the problem of evil.

—Steven L. Jones has a Ph.D. in classics from the University of Texas at Austin. He serves as a teaching pastor at Kingsland Baptist Church in Katy, Texas, and as a lecturer at Rice University