Philoctetes
Philoctetes (
Philoctetes was the subject of four different plays of ancient Greece, each written by one of the three major Greek tragedians. Of the four plays, Sophocles' Philoctetes is the only one that has survived. Sophocles' Philoctetes at Troy, Aeschylus' Philoctetes and Euripides' Philoctetes have all been lost, with the exception of some fragments. 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. The recall of Philoctetes is told in the lost epic Little Iliad, where his retrieval was accomplished by Diomedes.[4] Philoctetes killed three men at Troy.[5]
Description
Philoctetes was described by the chronicler Malalas in his account of the Chronography as "a good height, well set, dark skinned, eyebrows meeting, brave, good eyes, good nose, black hair, hairy, sensible, accurate archer, magnanimous".[6]
Stories
Philoctetes was the son of Poeas, king of Meliboea in Thessaly. He came into possession of the bow and arrows of Heracles after assisting the hero in ending the agony of the shirt of Nessus—Philoctetes, or in some versions his father, lit the pyre on which Heracles immolated himself and became immortal. Philoctetes then received the favor of the newly deified Heracles.
Philoctetes had been one of the many eligible Greeks who competed for the hand of Helen, the Spartan princess; as such, he was required to participate in the expedition to reclaim her for Menelaus that became the Trojan War. However, on the way to Troy, Philoctetes was left behind and stranded on the island of Lemnos. There are at least four stories about what caused the Greeks to abandon Philoctetes, but in every version he received a wound on his foot that festered and had a terrible smell.
One version holds that Philoctetes was bitten by a snake that
by killing King Tenes, allegedly the god's son. When the Achaeans were sacrificing to Apollo in expiation, a snake came out from the altar and bit Philoctetes.Another tradition says that the Greeks forced Philoctetes to show them where Heracles's ashes were deposited. Philoctetes would not break his oath by speech, but he went to the spot and placed his foot upon the site. The foot that touched the soil over the ashes immediately suffered a wound.
In a fourth version, Philoctetes received his terrible wound on the island of
Regardless of the cause of the wound, Philoctetes was marooned by the Greeks and harbored a grudge against
Once back in military company outside Troy, they employed either
According to another myth, Pylius (Πύλιος), the son of god Hephaestus, healed Philoctetes at Lemnos.[8][9]
Cult and cities
The author of the
Justin writes that people say that the city of Thurii was built by Philoctetes and his monument is seen there even to his days, as well as the arrows of Hercules which laid up in the temple of Apollo.[12]
Strabo writes that also
On a barren island near Lemnos there was an altar of Philoctetes with a brazen serpent, bows and breastplate bound with strips, to remind of the sufferings of the hero.[16]
Modern depictions
Drama
- The legend of Philoctetes was used by André Gide in his play Philoctète.
- The play in 1968 in Munich. It became one of his most-performed plays.
- AIDS. The play has consequently also become a metaphor for AIDS, with Philoktetes as a plagued outcast.
- The Cure at Troy (1991) is an often-quoted adaptation of Sophocles' tragedy by Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney.
Poetry
- The myth of Philoctetes is the inspiration for William Wordsworth's sonnet "When Philoctetes in the Lemnian Isle," though here the thematic focus is not the Greek warrior's magical bow or gruesome injury, but his abandonment. The poem is about the companionship and solace provided by Nature when all human society has been withdrawn.
- In Richard Aldington's "The Eaten Heart" (1929) the rescue of Philoctetes by Neoptolemus becomes a metaphor for the loneliness of the human soul and its release when it experiences love for another human being.
Novels
- The legend of Philoctetes was, in part, the inspiration for Robert Silverberg's science fiction novel The Man in the Maze.
- In the 1998 novel Sirena by Donna Jo Napoli, Philoctetes is the love interest of the protagonist, a mermaid named Sirena. She sees him marooned on Lemnos and defies Hera in order to tend his wound. Falling in love, they live together for many years until he is summoned to fight at Troy. They reluctantly part ways knowing that while Philoctetes will finally be healed, they will never see each other again.
Painting
- Philoctetes on the Island of Lemnos by James Barry, 1770, From A Series of Etchings by James Barry, Esq. from his Original and Justly Celebrated Paintings, in the Great Room of the Society of Arts.
- The Wounded Philoctetes by Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, which is also used as the front cover for the Penguin Classics edition of the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. (Image).
- Philoctetes on Lemnos by Jean Germain Drouais, 1788, now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Chartres (Image).
Sculpture
- Wounded Philoctetes by Herman Wilhelm Bissen, now in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen (Image).
See also
- Pythagoras (of Rhegium)
References
- ^ John C. Wells, Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd edition (2008), entry Philoctetes.
- ^ Hyginus, Fabulae, 102
- ^ Eustathius ad Horn. p. 323
- ^ Proklos. p. 3.2.
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(help) - Fabulae114.
- ^ Malalas, Chronography 5.104
- ISBN 978-1-58567-348-3. Retrieved December 17, 2012.
- ^ Photius, Bibliotheca excerpts - GR
- ^ Photius, Bibliotheca excerpts, 190.48 - EN
- ^ Aristotelian Corpus, On Marvelous Things Heard, § 27.107
- ^ Lycophron, Alexandra, 909
- ^ Justin, History of the World, 20.1
- ^ Solinus, Polyhistor, 2.10
- ^ a b c Strabo, Geography, 6.1.3
- ^ Virgil, Aeneid, §3.402
- ^ Appian, Mithridatic Wars, 11.77
External links
Media related to Philoctetes at Wikimedia Commons