Philoctetes
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A modern interpretation of the cause of his wound is that he was scratched by a poisoned arrow.
Commonly tips of arrows were poisoned with a combination of fermented viper venom, blood or plasma, and feces. Even a scratch would result in death, sometimes drawn out. A person who survives would do so with a festering wound.
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Regardless of the cause of the wound, Philoctetes was exiled by the Greeks and was angry at the treatment he received from Odysseus , King of Ithaca, who had advised the Atreidae to strand him. Helenus , the prophetic son of King Priam of Troy , was forced to reveal, under torture, that one of the conditions of the Greeks' winning the war was that they needed the bow and arrows of Heracles.
Upon hearing this, Odysseus and a group of men usually including Diomedes rushed back to Lemnos to recover Heracles' weapons. As Sophocles writes it in his play named Philoctetes , Odysseus is accompanied by Neoptolemus , Achilles ' son, also known as Pyrrhus. Other versions of the myth don't include Neoptolemus.
Surprised to find the archer alive, the Greeks balked on what to do next. Odysseus tricked the weaponry away from Philoctetes, but Diomedes refused to take the weapons without the man. Heracles, who had become a god many years earlier, came down from Olympus and told Philoctetes to go and that he would be healed by the son of Asclepius and win great honor as a hero of the Achaean army. Once back in military company outside Troy, they employed either Machaon the surgeon who may have been killed by Eurypylus of Mysia, son of Telephus , depending on the account or more likely Podalirius the physician, both sons of the immortal physician Asclepius , to heal his wound permanently.
Philoctetes challenged and would have killed Paris , son of Priam , in single combat were it not for the debates over future Greek strategy.
Philoctetes in the Island of Lemnos
In one telling it was Philoctetes who killed Paris. He shot four times: Philoctetes sided with Neoptolemus about continuing to try to storm the city. They were the only two to think so because they had not had the war-weariness of the prior ten years. Afterward, Philoctetes was among those chosen to hide inside the Trojan Horse , and during the sack of the city he killed many famed Trojans. Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change?
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Prints and Drawings Room View by appointment. Artist James Barry — Medium Etching, line engraving and aquatint on paper. Display caption Barry was one of several artists who took subjects from history in order to express a view about their own times.
Philoctetes or Philocthetes, according to Greek mythology, was the son of King Poeas of Meliboea in Thessaly. He was a Greek hero, famed as an archer, and a . Philoctetes is a play by Sophocles (Aeschylus and Euripides also each wrote a Philoctetes but theirs have not survived). The play was written during the.
After gaining Philoctetes' trust and offering him a ride home, Neoptolemus is allowed to look at the bow of Heracles. Neoptolemus holds the bow while Philoctetes is going into an unbearable fit of pain in his foot.
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Feeling ashamed, Neoptolemus debates giving it back to him. Odysseus appears, and a series of arguments ensue.
Eventually Neoptolemus' conscience gains the upper hand, and he returns the bow. After many threats made on both sides, Odysseus flees. Neoptolemus then tries to talk Philoctetes into coming to Troy by his own free will, but Philoctetes does not agree. In the end, Neoptolemus consents to take Philoctetes back to Greece, even though that will expose him to the anger of the army.
This appears to be the conclusion of the play—however, as they are leaving, Heracles now a deity appears above them and tells Philoctetes that if he goes to Troy, he will be cured and the Greeks will win. Philoctetes willingly obeys him. The play ends here. When Philoctetes later fights in Troy, his foot is healed, and he wins glory, killing many Trojans including Paris.
This simple story was first converted into a dramatic plot by Aeschylus, who represented Philoctetes as embittered by his sufferings, and irreconcilably hostile to the Greeks. Please try again later. In , at a conference dedicated to finding new ways to help US Marines recover from post-traumatic stress and other disorders after serving in Iraq or Afghanistan , four New York actors presented a dramatic reading from Philoctetes and Ajax. Philoctetes is also mentioned in Homer 's Iliad , Book 2, which describes his exile on the island of Lemnos, his being wounded by snake-bite, and his eventual recall by the Greeks. Archived from the original on
The concept of having a moral high ground is a key aspect in this play. The play makes the spectator question what morality means to each man. Furthermore, the play makes one question the struggle between what is right for the individual versus what is right for the group. It is possible that this struggle is irreconcilable. More specifically, one can see this struggle by looking at what has happened to Philoctetes versus what the Greeks need. Another theme is that of trauma.
Philoctetes suffers wounds that do not heal. Furthermore, Philoctetes' suffering is now what defines him, yet Neoptolemus pretends not to know Philoctetes at first.
Study for ‘Philoctetes on the Island of Lemnos’
In other words, Philoctetes' suffering should at least make him known, however it is as if his story is dead. The story of Philoctetes, dealing with the wounded man and the interwoven relationships with others, has been frequently noted.
In Bryan Doerries, writer and director, began a series of readings of the play in the New York City area. Noting the reactions of the audience to the reading, especially related to the reactions of audience members to the interaction of the suffering soldier and the conflicted caregiver.