That is the bare outline of the story of Philoctetes.
The details have been fleshed out by numerous writers since antiquity, thus giving rise to many variant versions. For example, according to some authors, it was not Philoctetes himself who lit Heracles’ funeral pyre but his father, Poeas, who later bequeathed the bow and arrows to his son. Several writers—notably Roman epic poet Valerius Flaccus (first century CE)—state that Philoctetes was one of the sailors who accompanied Jason on his quest for the Golden Fleece. However, Apollonius of Rhodes (third century BCE), the traditional source of the story of the Argonauts, does not mention him aboard the Argo.
The Trojan War occurred a generation after Jason’s voyage, and it was mainly the sons of the Argonauts who led the Greek forces to Troy. Philoctetes
Below: The adder or viper is thought to have been the poisonous serpent that bit Philoctetes on the foot.
Philoctetes’ Wound
There are several different accounts of the way in which Philoctetes acquired his festering wound. According to Proclus (c. 410-485 CE), Greek philosopher and author of a summary of the Trojan War, Philoctetes was bitten by a snake on the island of Tenedos while the Greeks were feasting there. Apollodorus (third century BCE) had previously stated that this happened during a sacrifice to Athena or Apollo. Sophocles instead locates this event at the temple of the nymph Chryse on an island of the same name that was said to have subsequently been submerged beneath the sea. Neither Sophocles nor any other writer gave a precise location for the island, but it was generally assumed to have been near Lemnos. The wound never healed, causing Philoctetes immense pain and altering his whole life. Henceforth he was driven psychologically into a middle
Ground between life and death—his fate is thus similar to that of Heracles after he had come into contact with the Hydra's venom.
In the account of the life of Philoctetes given by Servius Tullius (578-534 BCE), Philoctetes had promised Heracles that he would never tell anyone where to find his grave. When pressed for the information, however, Philoctetes marked the place by stamping his foot. While he was doing this one of the deadly arrows fell loose of the quiver, pricking his foot. The wound putrefied, and eventually Philoctetes' comrades could no longer bear to hear his continual moaning. They marooned him on nearby Lemnos, a place also associated with other smelly things in mythology—the divine blacksmith Hephaestus and the Lemnian women, who were cursed with a strange body odor.
Was the only hero who is said to have taken part in both expeditions. In some versions of the legend, he is even said to have been one of the early suitors of Helen of Troy.
Many of the great ancient Greek dramatists are known to have written about the story of Philoctetes, but the only one of their works that survives is Philoctetes by Sophocles (c. 496—406 BCE).The speech in which the hero expresses his anguish at having been betrayed by those he regarded as his friends, and the scene in which he has contact with humans for the first time in almost a decade, make this play one of the most powerful in Western literature.
Although the story of Philoctetes is heroic and full of great achievements, the legendary figure became most famous for his suffering. This illustrates a common tendency in Greek mythology to balance great glory with great suffering in the lives of its heroes. The character of Philoctetes has become an archetype of the misunderstood and abused genius whose assistance becomes essential to the survival of his people in times of adversity.
Kathryn Chew
Bibliography
Bulfinch, Thomas. Bulfmch’s Mythology. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2006.
Graves, Robert. The Greek Myths. New York: Penguin, 1993. Homer, and Robert Fagles, trans. The Iliad. New York: Penguin, 2009.
Sophocles, and Carl PhiUips, trans. Philoctetes. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
See also: Achilles; Helen; Heracles; Jason; Odysseus; Paris.
World History
