Philoctetes (Ancient Greek:ΦιλοκτήτηςPhiloktētēs; English pronunciation:/ˌfɪləkˈtiːtiːz/,stressed on the thirdsyllable,-tet-[1]), orPhilocthetes, according toGreek mythology, was the son ofPoeas, king ofMeliboea inThessaly, andDemonassa[2] orMethone.[3] He was a Greek hero, famed as an archer, and a participant in theTrojan War.
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 andEuripides'Philoctetes have all been lost, with the exception of some fragments. Philoctetes is also mentioned inHomer'sIliad, 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 epicLittle Iliad, where his retrieval was accomplished byDiomedes.[4] Philoctetes killed three men atTroy.[5]
Philoctetes was described by the chroniclerMalalas in his account of theChronography as "a good height, well set, dark skinned, eyebrows meeting, brave, good eyes, good nose, black hair, hairy, sensible, accurate archer, magnanimous".[6]
Philoctetes was the son ofPoeas, king ofMeliboea inThessaly. He came into possession of the bow and arrows ofHeracles after assisting the hero in ending the agony of theshirt 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 ofHelen, the Spartan princess; as such, he was required to participate in the expedition to reclaim her forMenelaus that became theTrojan War. However, on the way toTroy, Philoctetes was left behind and stranded on the island ofLemnos. 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 thatHera sent to molest him as punishment for the service rendered to Heracles, since Hera was portrayed in one tradition as the adversary of Heracles. The snakebite recurs in a version that has theAchaeans, en route to Troy, coming to the island ofTenedos, whereAchilles angeredApollo 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 ofChryse when he unknowingly trespassed the shrine of the nymph after whom the island was named. (This is the version in the extant play bySophocles.) A modern interpretation 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. A person who survived would have a festering wound, though even a scratch could result in death, sometimes drawn out.[7]
Regardless of the cause of the wound, Philoctetes was marooned by the Greeks and harbored a grudge againstOdysseus, who had advised theAtreidae to leave him.Medôn took control of Philoctetes' men, and Philoctetes himself remained on Lemnos, alone, for ten years, as the Trojan War dragged on.
Helenus, the prophetic son of KingPriam of Troy, was forced under torture to reveal that one of the conditions for the Greeks to win the war was possession of the bow and arrows of Heracles. Upon hearing this, Odysseus and a group of men (usually includingDiomedes) rushed back to Lemnos to recover Heracles' weapons. In thetragedy bySophocles titledPhiloctetes, Odysseus is accompanied byNeoptolemus,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 ( or Neoptolemus inPhiloctetes, 1373ff.) refused to take the weapons without the man. The divine Heracles 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 eitherMachaon the surgeon or more likelyPodalirius the physician, both sons of the immortal physicianAsclepius, to heal his wound permanently. Philoctetes challenged and would have killedParis, son ofPriam, in single combat were it not for the debates over future Greek strategy. In one version it was Philoctetes who killed Paris. He shot four times: the first arrow went wide; the second struck his bow hand; the third hit him in the right eye; the fourth hit him in the heel, so there was no need of a fifth shot. 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 thewar-weariness of the prior ten years. Afterward, Philoctetes was among those chosen to hide inside theTrojan Horse, and during the sack of the city he killed many famed Trojans.
According to another myth, Pylius (Πύλιος), the son of godHephaestus, healed Philoctetes atLemnos.[8][9]
Ascholiast commenting onApollonius'sArgonautica lists Philoctetes as one of themale lovers of Heracles.[10]
The author of theAristotelian Corpus writes that Philoctetes lived at theMacalla after he returned from the Trojan War, and adds that the hero had deposited there in the temple ofApollo Halius the bow and arrows ofHercules, which had, however, been removed by theCrotoniats to the temple of Apollo in their own city. In addition, the author mention that Philoctetes is honored among theSybarites.[11]According toLycophron, at Macalla the inhabitants built a great shrine above his grave and glorified him as an everlasting god with libations and sacrifice of oxen.[12]
Justin writes that people say that the city ofThurii 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.[13]
Solinus,Strabo andVirgil write thatPetilia was established by Philoctetes.[14][15][16]
Strabo writes that alsoKrimisa andChone were established by Philoctetes.[15] In addition, Strabo write that some of Philoctetes's companions fortifiedAegesta.[15]
On a barren island nearLemnos there was an altar of Philoctetes with a brazen serpent, bows and breastplate bound with strips, to remind of the sufferings of the hero.[17]
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