Philoctetes

Sophocles’ Philoctetes is a tragedy about the archer Philoctetes, who was abandoned on the island of Lemnos on his way to Troy because of a festering wound, and who is fetched back ten years later because the Greeks need his bow to take the city. According to the ancient hypothesis to the play, it was produced in 409 BC and won first prize. In the play, Odysseus brings Neoptolemus, the young son of Achilles, to Lemnos and instructs him to win Philoctetes’ trust with a false story and steal the bow of Heracles (lines 1–134). Neoptolemus tells Philoctetes that he has quarreled with the Atreidae and is sailing home, and Philoctetes begs to be taken with him (lines 219–541). A “merchant,” sent by Odysseus, brings word that Odysseus and Diomedes are coming for Philoctetes, and tells of a prophecy that Troy cannot be taken without him (lines 542–627). Philoctetes falls into a fit of pain and gives Neoptolemus the bow to keep; when he wakes, Neoptolemus confesses that he is taking him to Troy (lines 730–926). Odysseus appears and carries off the bow, but Neoptolemus is ashamed, comes back and returns it (lines 1222–1301). Philoctetes still refuses to go to Troy, and the god Heracles, appearing on high, persuades him to go (lines 1348–1451).

Date and Historical Background

According to the ancient introduction (hypothesis) to the play, Philoctetes was produced in the archonship of Glaucippus, that is in 409 BC, and won first prize for Sophocles; the hypothesis does not name the festival. The play is set late in the Trojan War: Philoctetes has been alone on Lemnos for ten years (line 312), and the seer Helenus, whom the Greeks have taken prisoner, says that Troy will fall that very summer if Philoctetes is brought (lines 1340–1342). In the play, the wound is from the bite of a snake at the shrine of Chryse (lines 266–270, 1326–1328), and Philoctetes had lit the pyre of Heracles in return for the gift of his bow (lines 801–803).

Characters and Setting

Characters

• Odysseus, king of Ithaca
• Neoptolemus, son of Achilles
• Philoctetes, son of Poeas, the owner of the bow of Heracles
• Merchant, a spy of Odysseus disguised as a ship’s captain
• Heracles, who appears at the end
• Chorus of sailors from the ship of Neoptolemus

Setting

The play is set on the shore of Lemnos, in front of the cave of Philoctetes, which has two entrances and is open to the sun in winter and to a cooling breeze in summer (lines 1–19).

Summary of Philoctetes

Prologue

Odysseus and Neoptolemus have just landed on Lemnos, a desolate island where nobody lives (lines 1–2). Odysseus tells the young man that he left Philoctetes here long ago, on the orders of the two commanders, because of the festering wound in his foot, and because his cries made it impossible to make libations or sacrifices in the camp (lines 3–11). He sends an attendant to look for the cave, which the two find empty but clearly lived in: a bed of leaves, a wooden cup, and rags stained by the disease (lines 16–39). Philoctetes, they conclude, has gone out to look for food or a herb for his wound (lines 40–47).

Odysseus explains what Neoptolemus is to do (lines 50–85). If Philoctetes sees Odysseus while he still has his bow, Odysseus is dead, and so is Neoptolemus with him (lines 73–76). Neoptolemus, who has not sworn the oath that bound the others and had no part in the first expedition, must win Philoctetes over with a story: that he is the son of Achilles, that he is sailing home after quarreling with the Greeks, who gave his father’s arms to Odysseus, and that he hates Odysseus and the Atreidae (lines 56–68). The aim is to steal the bow (lines 77–78). Neoptolemus protests that he would rather take Philoctetes by force, and that he prefers to fail honorably than to win by dishonor (lines 86–95). Odysseus replies that force is impossible, since Philoctetes’ arrows never miss, and that persuasion will not work (lines 96–105). Falsehood is no shame, he says, if it brings deliverance (lines 108–109). “His arrows alone will capture Troy,” he says (line 113), and he promises Neoptolemus that he will be called both clever and noble (lines 117–119). Neoptolemus gives way: “I will do it, and cast off all shame” (line 120). Odysseus leaves, saying that if Neoptolemus takes too long, he will send back the attendant, disguised as the captain of a merchant ship, so that the story can be helped along (lines 123–129). He ends with a prayer to Hermes the Deceiver, to Victory, and to Athena Polias (lines 133–134).

Parodos (Entrance Song)

The Chorus of Neoptolemus’ sailors asks what it must hide and what it may tell, and Neoptolemus tells them to watch the cave and come forward at his signal (lines 135–149). He shows them the cave with its two doors and they pity Philoctetes, who lies alone among wild beasts with no companion, answered only by Echo; they say that his sufferings, at the hands of the gods, are meant to keep him from using the arrows against Troy until the appointed time (lines 150–200). They hear a groaning sound, and Philoctetes approaches (lines 201–218).

First Episode

“O strangers!” he cries, asking who they are and from what country they have come to this harborless land (lines 219–231). He weeps for joy when he learns they are Greeks, and learns that the young man is Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, sailing home from Troy (lines 232–247). Philoctetes tells his story (lines 254–316). He was bitten by a snake at Chryse and was left by the Atreidae and Odysseus, asleep in a cave, with a few rags and a little food. He has survived by shooting birds with the bow of Heracles, crawling after the bird he has hit, and has made fire by striking stone on stone (lines 285–299). Sailors who land on the island pity him and give him a little food or clothing, but no one will take him home, and this is the tenth year of his misery (lines 300–316). Neoptolemus then tells his false story (lines 343–390). Odysseus and Phoenix fetched him to Troy by saying that he alone was destined to take the city, but when he arrived and claimed his father’s arms, the Atreidae told him that Odysseus had them. He quarreled with Odysseus, and sailed away. Philoctetes recognizes the work of the Atreidae and Odysseus in this (lines 403–409). They talk of the dead: Achilles, Ajax, Patroclus and Antilochus are dead, while Odysseus, Diomedes and Thersites live; Philoctetes concludes that the gods save the wicked and send the good to death (lines 410–452). Neoptolemus says that he will sail for Scyros and have nothing more to do with Troy (lines 453–465). Philoctetes begs him, by his father and mother, not to leave him: anywhere on the ship, and only as far as the home of his father at Oeta (lines 466–506). The Chorus asks Neoptolemus to pity him, and he agrees (lines 507–529).

As they are about to go inside, two men arrive, one a sailor from Neoptolemus’ ship and the other a stranger (lines 539–541). The stranger, who says he is a trader, tells Neoptolemus that Phoenix and the sons of Theseus have set out to bring him back, and that Diomedes and Odysseus are on their way to fetch Philoctetes, sworn to bring him by persuasion or by force (lines 542–602). He adds that the Greeks have captured the Trojan seer Helenus, who prophesied that the Greeks could not take Troy unless they brought Philoctetes from his island by persuasion (lines 603–619). Philoctetes cries that Odysseus might as well hope to bring him back from the dead, as Odysseus’ own father came back from Hades, and that he would sooner listen to the viper that crippled him (lines 622–638). He urges Neoptolemus to sail at once, but the wind is against them, as it is against any pursuer (lines 639–661). Philoctetes fetches the herb for his wound and the arrows, and Neoptolemus asks to see the bow, which Philoctetes lets him handle (lines 654–675).

In the first stasimon (lines 676–729) the sailors tell of Ixion, bound to a wheel, but say that no one has suffered so much as Philoctetes, who did no wrong (lines 676–729).

Second Episode

As they leave, Philoctetes is seized by a fit of pain that makes him cry out and beg Neoptolemus to cut off his foot (lines 730–761). He gives Neoptolemus the bow to hold and tells him not to give it to his enemies, “willingly or unwillingly” (lines 762–773). Neoptolemus promises that it will pass into no hands but theirs (lines 774–775). Philoctetes curses Odysseus and the Atreidae and asks to be burned on the fire of Lemnos as he once was willing to do for Heracles (lines 782–805). He asks Neoptolemus not to leave him, and takes his right hand on it, and the young man promises (lines 806–813). He falls into a sleep (lines 814–826).

The Chorus calls on Sleep and tells Neoptolemus that this is the moment to take the bow and go (lines 827–838). He answers that the bow is no use to them without the man: the god’s command was to bring him, and “it would be a foul disgrace to boast of deeds in which failure and fraud have equal parts” (lines 839–842). The Chorus urges him to act quietly (lines 843–864). Philoctetes wakes, thanks Neoptolemus for staying with him, and asks him to help him to his feet (lines 865–893). But Neoptolemus is lost: “What am I to do next?” (line 895). He confesses at last, “I will conceal nothing: you must sail to Troy, to the Achaeans and the army of the Atreidae” (lines 915–916). Philoctetes answers with a torrent of rage (lines 927–962), cries to his cave, and curses the boy who has stolen his life together with the bow he swore to protect.

Third Episode

Philoctetes has not finished when Odysseus suddenly appears: “Traitor, what are you doing?” (lines 974–975). Odysseus tells him that he will go to Troy, by force if he does not come willingly, because Zeus commands it (lines 981–993). Philoctetes tries to throw himself from the cliff and is held (lines 994–1003). He curses Odysseus and speaks to Neoptolemus, whom he defends as a young man misled by evil masters (lines 1004–1044). Odysseus says calmly that he can give way in this: the Greeks no longer need Philoctetes, since they have the bow, and Teucer is there as an archer, as is Odysseus himself, who can use it as well (lines 1047–1062). He leaves, telling Neoptolemus to follow. Neoptolemus gives the Chorus orders to stay with Philoctetes until the ship is ready, in case he changes his mind (lines 1074–1080).

Alone with the Chorus, Philoctetes sings of his cave, the doves he can no longer shoot, and the bow that is now in another’s hands (lines 1081–1161). The sailors urge him to come with them, saying that this suffering is his own choice; Philoctetes refuses, even if Zeus himself struck him with lightning, and asks the Chorus for a sword so that he can kill himself (lines 1162–1217). He goes into the cave.

Exodos (Exit Song)

Neoptolemus comes back with Odysseus following close behind. “I come to undo the mistake I made,” he says, and he says that he is going to give the bow back to the man he took it from (lines 1222–1234). Odysseus warns him that the whole army will oppose him; Neoptolemus puts his hand to his sword, and Odysseus goes off to report to the army (lines 1237–1262). Neoptolemus calls Philoctetes from the cave. Philoctetes comes out afraid, and when Neoptolemus swears by Zeus and offers the bow, Odysseus reappears at the last moment to forbid it. Philoctetes threatens him with the bow, and Neoptolemus holds him back; Odysseus does not appear again (lines 1263–1301).

Neoptolemus then urges Philoctetes to go to Troy (lines 1314–1347). The wound, he says, comes from the serpent that guarded Chryse, and will not be healed until Philoctetes goes to Troy, where the sons of Asclepius will heal him and he will be known as the sacker of Troy; Helenus has said that Troy will fall this summer. Philoctetes refuses: he will not go to fight beside the men who wronged him, and Neoptolemus must keep his promise and take him home (lines 1348–1372). Neoptolemus agrees, though he fears the Achaeans (lines 1373–1407). As they are about to leave, Heracles appears above (lines 1408–1444). He says that he has won immortality by toil, and that Philoctetes too is destined to win glory: at Troy he will be healed, kill Paris with the bow, sack Troy, and take the prize of valor home to his father Poeas. He tells Philoctetes to take a share of the spoil to his pyre on Oeta. Neoptolemus and Philoctetes, he says, cannot take Troy without each other, and must guard each other like two lions hunting together. He will send Asclepius to heal Philoctetes, and he warns them to show reverence to the gods when they sack the city. Philoctetes answers, “I will not disobey your commands,” and takes leave of Lemnos and his cave (lines 1445–1468). The Chorus ends the play by calling on all to go and to pray to the sea nymphs for a safe voyage (lines 1469–1471).

A Brief Analysis

The play is built on three conflicting claims, each stated in the text. Odysseus holds that a deception is justified if it saves the army: “it is not shameful to lie, if the lie brings deliverance” (lines 108–109), and he asks Neoptolemus to give himself to him for “one brief, shameless day” (lines 83–85). Neoptolemus answers at first that he would rather fail honorably than win by dishonor (lines 94–95). Philoctetes, who has been used by the army and cast out, sees no reason to help those who abandoned him, and prefers to die: he asks for a sword (lines 1204–1209) and tries to leap from the cliff (lines 1001–1003).

The turning point is Neoptolemus’ break with the plan. After Philoctetes’ pain and his gift of the bow, Neoptolemus can no longer carry on with the deceit: “What am I to do next?” (line 895). Later he admits that he got the bow by “disgraceful deceits and treachery” (lines 1224–1234). Once the bow is back in his hands, Philoctetes hears Neoptolemus’ account of the prophecy (lines 1314–1347), but he does not give way (lines 1348–1372), and Neoptolemus is ready to take him home against the army’s will (lines 1402–1407). It is Heracles, whose voice Philoctetes has longed to hear, whom he obeys (lines 1445–1451).

The question of nature is raised twice. Odysseus knows that it is not in Neoptolemus’ nature to speak or contrive such things (lines 79–80), and when the young man falters, Neoptolemus himself says that everything is offensive when a man abandons his own nature and does what does not suit him, and Philoctetes answers that in helping a noble man he is doing nothing that his father would not have done (lines 902–905). The bow, too, has a character of its own in the story: Philoctetes warns Neoptolemus to humble himself before the jealous gods, so that the bow may not prove baneful to him as it did to Philoctetes and to the man who owned it before (lines 776–778).

The Chorus has a part of its own. It first advises Neoptolemus to seize the bow while Philoctetes sleeps (lines 827–838, 843–864), and later urges Philoctetes to come with them, saying that his misery is of his own choosing (lines 1095–1100, 1163–1217). Its pity for him appears from the first song (lines 169–200) and at the first stasimon, and Neoptolemus orders it to stay with Philoctetes when he leaves with Odysseus (lines 1074–1080).

The play also touches on the gods’ justice. Philoctetes complains that the gods keep the wicked alive while the good die (lines 446–452), and the Chorus suggests that his sufferings come from the gods, to keep him from using the bow on Troy before the time (lines 191–200). Odysseus appeals to Zeus for his orders (lines 989–991), and Philoctetes calls this making the gods liars (line 992). Heracles’ speech announces the will of Zeus (lines 1415–1416) and ends with a warning to show reverence to the gods when the city is sacked (lines 1440–1444).

Philoctetes Sources

Sophocles, Philoctetes, cited by line, in Greek and in English at Perseus Philoctetes 1. The date and prize are those given in the ancient hypothesis to the play.

See Also: Sophocles, Heracles, Odysseus, Neoptolemus, Achilles, Trojan War