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Philoctetes (Sophocles)

 
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Philoctetes ( / Philoktetes) is a play by Sophocles
Sophocles

Sophocles was the second of the three classical Greece tragedy whose work has survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus and earlier than those of Euripides....
 (Aeschylus
Aeschylus

Aeschylus was an Ancient Greece playwright. He is often recognized as the father or the founder of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedy whose Play survive extant, the others being Sophocles and Euripides....
 and Euripides
Euripides

Euripides was the last of the three great tragedy of classical Athens . Ancient scholars thought that Euripides had written ninety-five plays, although four of those were probably written by Critias....
 also each wrote a Philoctetes but theirs did not survive). It was first performed at the Festival of Dionysus in 409 BC, where it won first prize. The story takes place during the Trojan War
Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta....
 (after the events of the Iliad
ILiad

The iLiad is an electronic handheld device, or e-book device, which can be used for document reading and editing. Like the Sony Reader or Amazon Kindle, the iLiad makes use of an electronic paper display....
, and before the Trojan Horse
Trojan Horse

The "Trojan Horse" refers to the stratagem that allowed the Greeks to finally enter the city of Troy during the Trojan War. In the best-known version of this Bronze Age story, after a fruitless 10-year siege of Troy, the Greeks built a huge figure of a horse, in which a select force of men hid....
). It describes the attempt by Neoptolemus
Neoptolemus

In Greek mythology, Neoptolemus was the son of the warrior Achilles and the princess Deidamia . Achilles' mother foretold many years before Achilles birth that there would be a great war....
 and Odysseus
Odysseus

Odysseus or Ulysses , in Greek mythology , was a legendary Greeks king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's Epic poetry, the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
 to bring the disabled Philoctetes
Philoctetes

In Greek mythology, Philoctetes was the son of King Poeas of Meliboea in Thessaly. He was a Greek hero, famed as an archer, and was a participant in the Trojan War....
 with them to Troy.

Background
When Heracles
Heracles

In Greek mythology, Heracles or Herakles meaning "glory of Hera", or "Glorious through Hera" Alcides or Alcaeus " was a hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus....
 was near death (the subject of another play by Sophocles - The Trachiniae
The Trachiniae

The Trachiniae or The Women of Trachis is a play by Sophocles, notable mainly for the unsympathetic portrayal of Heracles. As in the play Ajax , Sophocles has cast a well-known hero in a negative light....
), he wished to be burned on a funeral pyre while still alive.






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Philoctetes ( / Philoktetes) is a play by Sophocles
Sophocles

Sophocles was the second of the three classical Greece tragedy whose work has survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus and earlier than those of Euripides....
 (Aeschylus
Aeschylus

Aeschylus was an Ancient Greece playwright. He is often recognized as the father or the founder of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedy whose Play survive extant, the others being Sophocles and Euripides....
 and Euripides
Euripides

Euripides was the last of the three great tragedy of classical Athens . Ancient scholars thought that Euripides had written ninety-five plays, although four of those were probably written by Critias....
 also each wrote a Philoctetes but theirs did not survive). It was first performed at the Festival of Dionysus in 409 BC, where it won first prize. The story takes place during the Trojan War
Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta....
 (after the events of the Iliad
ILiad

The iLiad is an electronic handheld device, or e-book device, which can be used for document reading and editing. Like the Sony Reader or Amazon Kindle, the iLiad makes use of an electronic paper display....
, and before the Trojan Horse
Trojan Horse

The "Trojan Horse" refers to the stratagem that allowed the Greeks to finally enter the city of Troy during the Trojan War. In the best-known version of this Bronze Age story, after a fruitless 10-year siege of Troy, the Greeks built a huge figure of a horse, in which a select force of men hid....
). It describes the attempt by Neoptolemus
Neoptolemus

In Greek mythology, Neoptolemus was the son of the warrior Achilles and the princess Deidamia . Achilles' mother foretold many years before Achilles birth that there would be a great war....
 and Odysseus
Odysseus

Odysseus or Ulysses , in Greek mythology , was a legendary Greeks king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's Epic poetry, the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
 to bring the disabled Philoctetes
Philoctetes

In Greek mythology, Philoctetes was the son of King Poeas of Meliboea in Thessaly. He was a Greek hero, famed as an archer, and was a participant in the Trojan War....
 with them to Troy.

Background


When Heracles
Heracles

In Greek mythology, Heracles or Herakles meaning "glory of Hera", or "Glorious through Hera" Alcides or Alcaeus " was a hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus....
 was near death (the subject of another play by Sophocles - The Trachiniae
The Trachiniae

The Trachiniae or The Women of Trachis is a play by Sophocles, notable mainly for the unsympathetic portrayal of Heracles. As in the play Ajax , Sophocles has cast a well-known hero in a negative light....
), he wished to be burned on a funeral pyre while still alive. No one but Philoctetes would light the fire, and in return for this favor Heracles gives him his bow. Philoctetes leaves with the others to participate in the Trojan War
Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta....
, but gets bitten on the foot by a snake. The bite leaves him in constant agony, and emits a horrible smell. For this he is left by Odysseus on the desert island Lemnos
Lemnos

Lemnos is an island in the northern part of the Aegean Sea. It is part of the prefecture of Greece of Lesbos Prefecture and has a considerable area, about 477 km?....
.

Ten years pass, and the Greeks capture the Trojan seer
Seer

Seer or Seers or SEER may refer to:Predicting the future* A Clairvoyance or a prophet* The Seer , a fictional character on the television series Charmed...
 Helenus
Helenus

Helenus was a Trojan soldier and prophet in the Trojan War.In Greek mythology, Helenus was the son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy, and the twin brother of the prophetess Cassandra....
, son of Priam
Priam

In Greek mythology, Priam was the king of Troy during the Trojan War and youngest son of Laomedon. Modern scholars derive his name from the Luwian compound Priimuua, which means "exceptionally courageous"....
. He foretells that they will require Philoctetes and the bow of Heracles in order to win the war. So Odysseus sails back to Lemnos with Neoptolemus (a late arriver to the Trojan War and son of Achilles
Achilles

In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greeks hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad, which takes for its theme ; the Wrath of Achilles....
) in order to get him. The task will not be easy, as Philoctetes bitterly hates Odysseus and the Greeks for leaving him there.

Story


Philoctetes begins with their arrival on the island. Odysseus explains to Neoptolemus that he must perform a shameful action in order to garner future glory - to take Philoctetes by tricking him with a false story while Odysseus hides. Neoptolemus is portrayed as an honorable boy, and so it takes some persuading in order for him to play this part. In order to gain Philoctetes's trust, he tricks him into thinking he hates Odysseus as well. Odysseus has his father's armor. He tells Philoctetes that this armor was his right by birth, and Odysseus would not give it up to him. After gaining his trust and offering him a ride home, he 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. Feeling ashamed, Neoptolemus debates giving it back to him. Odysseus appears, and a series of arguments ensue. Eventually Neoptolemus's 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 to no avail, and in the end Neoptolemus consents to take Philoctetes back to Greece, even though that means that he will be exposed to the anger of the army. This appears to be the conclusion of the play: but as they are leaving, Heracles (now a deity) appears above them and commands Philoctetes to go to Troy and be cured. Philoctetes willingly obeys him.

The play ends here. When Philoctetes later fights in Troy, his foot gets healed, and he wins glory killing many Trojans (including Paris
Paris (mythology)

Paris , the son of Priam, king of Troy, appears in a number of Greek mythology. Probably the best-known was his elopement with Helen, queen of Sparta, this being one of the immediate causes of the Trojan War....
).

The Philoctetes Project


The story of Philoctetes, dealing with the wounded man and the interwoven relationships with others, has been noted not infrequently. In 2005 Bryan Doerries, writer and director, began a series of readings of the play in the New York
New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
 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, he and others started the Philoctetes Project, presenting such readings especially to audiences of medical professionals and students.

A number of readings were followed by a panel discussion about doctor-patient relationships, involving presenters in psychiatry, physicians, and military medical personnel among others.

The concept has also been extended to training of medical students, such as a presentation also in 2007 to the first year medical class at Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Cornell University

Cornell University located in Ithaca, New York, USA, is a private university with four Statutory college. Its two medical campuses are in New York City and Education City, Qatar....
, involving not only the students but faculty members, including presentation and discussion of an actual case dealing with the patient-caregiver interactions that parallel the situation that Sophocles presented.

In 2008 at a conference dedicated to finding new ways to help US Marines recover from post-traumatic stress and other disorders after serving in Iraq
Iraq

Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
 or Afghanistan
Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country that is located approximately in the center of Asia....
, four New York actors presented dramatic reading from this play and Ajax (Sophocles)
Ajax (Sophocles)

Ajax is a play by Sophocles. The date of its first performance is unknown, but most scholars regard it as early rather than late in Sophocles' career, about 450 BCE to 430 BCE ....
, focused on physical and psychological wounds inflicted on the warrior..

Translations

  • Thomas Francklin, 1759 - verse:
  • Richard C. Jebb, 1904 - prose:
  • Francis Storr, 1912 - verse
  • David Grene, 1957 - verse
  • Gregory McNamee, 1986 - prose:
  • Christopher Webber
    Christopher Webber

    Christopher Webber is an England actor, dramatist, theatre director, writer and music critic....
    , 1989 - verse and prose
  • Seth L. Schein, 2003- verse and prose


See also

  • The Cure at Troy by Seamus Heaney
    Seamus Heaney

    Seamus Heaney is an Irish people poet, writer and lecturer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. He currently lives in Dublin....
    , based on Philoctetes


Footnotes