Set III-4-phi-001. In Greek mythology, Philoctetes was the son of king Poeas of Meliboea in Thessaly and a skillful archer. He volunteered to lit the funeral pyre of agonizing Heracles and for that service inherited his bow and arrows. Philoctetes joined the Greek forces against Troy, but on the way was bitten by a snake resulting in an awfully smelling festering wound. He was abandoned on the island of Lemnos, but ten years later was retrieved after the prophecy about the crucial role of Heracles' weapons in the Greek victory.
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“ Those from Methone, Thaumacie, Meliboea and rugged Olizon were brought by the great archer Philoctetes in seven ships, each manned by fifty oarsmen trained to go into battle with the bow. But their commander lay in agony on the lovely isle of Lemnos, where the Achaean army had left him, suffering from the poisonous bite of a malignant water snake [ὕδρος]. So he lay there pining, though the Argives by their ships were destined before long to think once more of King Philoctetes. „
● Homer (700s-600s BC), Iliad II: 716-725 | Translated by Emile V. Rieu. Copyright © 1950.
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“ Just now, indeed, after the fashion of Philoktetes, he has gone on campaign, and even one who was proud found it necessary to fawn upon him as a friend. They tell that the godlike heroes came to fetch him from Lemnos, wasting from his wound. Poias' archer son, who destroyed Priam's city and ended the Danaans' toils; he walked with flesh infirm, but it was the work of destiny. „
● Pindar (522-443 BC), Pythian Ode I: 050-058 | Translated by William H. Race. Copyright © 1997.
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“ This is it; this Lemnos and its beach down to the sea that quite surrounds it; desolate, no one sets foot on it; there are no houses. This is where I [Odysseus] marooned him [Philoctetes] long ago, the son of Poias, the Melian, his foot diseased and eaten away with running ulcers. {...} if you [Neoptolemos] will not do this, you will bring sorrow on all the Greeks. If this man's [Philoctetes'] bow shall not be taken by us, you cannot sack the town of Troy. {...} I am Philoctetes the son of Poias. Those two generals and Prince Odysseus of the Cephallenians cast me ashore here to their shame, as lonely as you can see me now, wasting with my sickness as cruel as it is, caused by the murderous bite of a viper [ἔχιδνα] mortally dangerous. I was already bitten when we put in here on my way from sea-encircled Chryse. I tell you boy [Neoptolemos], those men cast me away here and ran and left me helpless. {...} There was a prophet of very good family, a son of Priam indeed, called Helenus. He was captured one night in an expedition undertaken single-handed by Odysseus, of whom all base and shameful things are spoken, captured by stratagem. Odysseus brought his prisoner before the Greeks, a splendid prize. Helenus prophesied everything to them and, in particular, touching the fortress of Troy, that they could never take it till they persuaded Philoctetes to come with them and leave his island. As soon as Odysseus heard the prophet say this, he promised at once to bring the man before them, for all to see- he thought, as a willing prisoner, but, if not that, against his will. If he failed, "any of them might have his head," he declared. {...} Is it not terrible, boy [Neoptolemos], that this Odysseus should think that there are words soft enough to win me, to let him put me in his boat, exhibit me in front of all the Greeks? No! I would rather listen to my worst enemy, the snake [ἔχιδνα] that bit me, made me into this cripple. But he can say anything, he can dare anything. Now I know that he will come here. Boy, let us go, that a great sea may sever us from Odysseus' ship. Let us go. {...} Yet I [Neoptolemos] will speak. May Zeus, the God of Oaths, be my witness! Mark it, Philoctetes, write it in your mind. You are sick and the pain of the sickness is of God's sending because you approached the Guardian of Chryse, the serpent [ὄφις] that with secret watch protects her roofless shrine to keep it from violation. You will never know relief while the selfsame sun rises before you here, sets there again, until you come of your own will to Troy, and meet among us the Asclepiadae [Podalirius; less likely, Machaon], who will relieve your sickness; then with the bow and by my side, you will become Troy's conqueror. I will tell you how I know that this is so. There was a man of Troy who was taken prisoner, Helenus, a good prophet. He told us clearly how it should be and said, besides, that all Troy must fall this summer. He said, "If I prove wrong you may kill me." Now since you know this, yield and be gracious. It is a glorious heightening of gain. First, to come into hands that can heal you, and then be judged pre-eminent among the Greeks, winning the highest renown among them, taking Troy that has cost infinity of tears. {...} Let me [Heracles] reveal to you my own story first, let me show the tasks and sufferings that were mine, and, at the last, the winning of deathless merit. All this you [Philoctetes] can see in me now. All this be your suffering too, the winning of a life to an end in glory, out of this suffering. Go with this man [Neoptolemos] to Troy. First, you shall find there the cure of your cruel sickness, and then be adjudged best warrior among the Greeks. Paris, the cause of all this evil, you shall kill with the bow that was mine. Troy you shall take. You shall win the prize of valour from the army and shall send the spoils to your home, to your father Poias, and the land of your Fathers, Oeta. From the spoils of the campaign you must dedicate some, on my pyre, in memory of my bow. Son of Achilles, I have the same words for you. You shall not have the strength to capture Troy without this man, nor he without you, but, like twin lions hunting together, he shall guard you, you him. I shall send Asclepius to Ilium to heal his sickness. Twice must Ilium fall to my bow. But this remember, when you shall come to sack that town, keep holy in the sight of God. All else our father Zeus thinks of less moment. Holiness does not die with the men that die. Whether they die or live, it cannot perish. „
● Sophocles (497/496-406/405 BC), Philoctetes: 001-005, 066-069, 262-272, 605-619, 627-637, 1325-1348, 1418-1445 | Translated by David Grene. Copyright © 1957.
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“ The god [Apollo] gave the reply that Heracles should be taken, and with him his armour and weapons of war, unto Oete and that they should build a huge pyre near him; what remained to be done, he said, would rest with Zeus. Now when Iolaus had carried out these orders and had withdrawn to a distance to see what would take place, Heracles, having abandoned hope for himself, ascended the pyre and asked each one who came up to him to put torch to the pyre. And when no one had the courage to obey him Philoctetes alone was prevailed upon; and he, having received in return for his compliance the gift of the bow and arrows of Heracles, lighted the pyre. And immediately lightning also fell from the heavens and the pyre was wholly consumed. „
● Diodorus Siculus (90-30 BC), Historical Library IV: 38, 3-4 | Translated by Charles H. Oldfather. Copyright © 1933-1954.
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“ But what then happened to Hercules? Felling some of the trees on the heights of Oeta, he built them into a pyre; and to set it alight he employed Philoctetes. To him he entrusted his famous bow and the quiver containing the arrows destined one day to revisit the kingdom of Troy. „
● Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BC - 17/18 AD), Metamorphoses IX: 229-233 | Translated by David Raeburn. Copyright © 2004.
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“ {...} Philoctetes is stranded on Vulcan's island of Lemnos. „
● Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BC - 17/18 AD), Metamorphoses XIII: 313-314 | Translated by David Raeburn. Copyright © 2004.
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“ As they were making a sacrifice to Apollo, a water snake [ὕδρος] came from the altar and bit Philoctetes. The wound would not heal and gave off a foul odor, and the army could not bear the reek of it. So on Agamemnon's order, Odysseus marooned him on Lemnos with Heracles' bow, which he owned. Philoctetes fed himself on the desert island by shooting birds. „
● Pseudo-Apollodorus (100s AD?), Bibliotheca: Epitome 3, 027 | Translated by R. Scott Smith. Copyright © 2007.
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“ When Philoctetes, the son of Poeas and Demonassa, was on the island of Lemnos, a snake [serpens] bit him on his foot. This snake [serpens] had been sent by Juno, who was angry at him because he was the only one who had the nerve to build a pyre for Hercules when he discarded his human body and was made immortal. In return for his service, Hercules bequeathed to him his divine arrows. But when the Achaeans could no longer put up with the foul odor that was coming from the wound, on King Agamemnon's orders he was abandoned on Lemnos along with his divine arrows. A shepherd of King Actor named Iphimachus, the son of Dolopion, found him abandoned and took care of him. Later it was revealed to the Greeks that Troy could not be taken without Hercules' arrows. Agamemnon then sent Ulysses and Diomedes to find him. They convinced him to let bygones by bygones and help them to sack Troy, and they took him back to Troy with them. „
● Hyginus (100s AD?), Fabulae: 102, Philoctetes | Translated by Stephen M. Trzaskoma. Copyright © 2007.
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“ The city of Mantineia is roughly a mile and a half from this spring: Lykaon's son Mantineus appears to have built his city elsewhere, and the Arkadians still call it the City to this day, but Aleus' granddaughter, Kepheus' daughter Antinoe took away the people by the command of an oracle, and brought them to this place, guided by a snake [ὄφις], though what kind of snake [Ø] is not recorded. Because of this the river that flows past the modern city is called the Snake [Ὄφις]. If one can draw conclusions from Homeric poetry, I am sure this snake [ὄφις] was a dragon [δράκων]: when Homer write of Philoktetes in the list of ships that the Greeks deserted him in Lemnos suffering from the snake-bite [Ø], he does not give the water-serpent [ὕδρος] the title of snake [ὄφις], but he does call the dragon [δράκων] the eagle dropped on the Trojans a snake [ὄφις]: and so the probabilities are that Antinoe was guided by a dragon [δράκων]. „
● Pausanias (110-180 AD), Description of Greece VIII Arcadia: 8, 4 | Translated by Peter Levi. Copyright © 1971.
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“ There is a way in which Fortune shows a still greater and even more astounding power than in the tragedies and the happiness of cities. The island of Chryse where they say Philoktetes suffered his tragedy from the water-snake [ὕδρος] was not long voyage away from Lemnos: it was completely submerged by the wave of the sea, Chryse sank and vanished into the depths. „
● Pausanias (110-180 AD), Description of Greece VIII Arcadia: 33, 4 | Translated by Peter Levi. Copyright © 1971.
| Editorial notes: {...} - Omitted text; [...] - Translation back to the original, clarification, or curator's commentary. |
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