Philoctetes by Sophocles

1/ The premise is simple: in the Trojan war, Philoctetes gets bitten on the foot by a snake, which causes him constant agony and an awful smell; Odysseus and others forsake him on a desert island; however, after 10 years have passed, Odysseus hears from the seer Helenus that the Greeks need the archer Philoctetes and his bow, from Heracles, to win the war; and the entire play is about tricking or persuading Philoctetes to get on the ship with Odysseus. 

It is fascinating to see the differences between the ancient Greek plays and the Elizabethan/ Jacobean plays: the latter are full of incident and full of action, Shakespeare’s plays for instance often have multiple plot lines, in different locations, sometimes even different countries; the former keep to one action (Electra and Orestes killing their mother, Medea killing her children, etc). Philoctetes has an even simpler plot than some other ancient Greek plays—but isn’t that the challenge? To get the audience interested? And interested I was. 

Odysseus wants Neoptolemus (Achilles’s son) to bring Philoctetes back by trickery, which he initially does in spite of his own misgivings. 

“ODYSSEUS Son of a valiant sire, I, too, in youth,

Had once a slow tongue and an active hand.

But since I have proved the world, I clearly see

Words and not deeds give mastery over men.”

(translated by Lewis Campbell) 

The first conflict is between Odysseus and Neoptolemus. 

“NEOPTOLEMUS And is not lying shameful to thy soul?

ODYSSEUS Not if by lying I can save my soul.”

After the conversation between Neoptolemus and Philoctetes, the conflict is then between the two sides within Neoptolemus, then between him and Odysseus, and finally between Philoctetes and the other two. Neoptolemus yields to his own nobility and wins Philoctetes over by honesty and trust.

Neoptolemus is the one with complexity, the one who changes. 

2/ Lewis Campbell seems to embellish a bit: 

“PHILOCTETES […] Nor would fire come unbidden, but with flint

From flints striking dim sparks, I hammered forth

The struggling flame that keeps the life in me.

For houseroom with the single help of fire

Gives all I need, save healing for my sore.” 

These are the same lines, in James Scully’s translation: 

“PHILOKTETES […] No fire, none, but striking

stone on stone

I’d make the secret spark

leap up, out of darkness!

And this is what saved me.

A roof overhead, fire,

it’s all I need—except

release from this disease.” 

I did very much enjoy Lewis Campbell’s verse translation though. There are many great passages. 

“CHORUS I feel his misery.

With no companion eye,

Far from all human care,

He pines with fell disease;

Each want he hourly sees

Awakening new despair.

How can he bear it still?

O cruel Heavens! O pain

Of that afflicted mortal train

Whose life sharp sorrows fill!” 

Philoctetes is another picture of woe and resentment. Tormented by the wound “[made] by the cruel basilisk’s murderous tooth.” 

“PHILOCTETES How full of griefs am I, how Heaven-abhorred,

When of my piteous state no faintest sound

Hath reached my home, or any Grecian land!

But they, who pitilessly cast me forth,

Keep silence and are glad, while this my plague

Blooms ever, and is strengthened more and more.” 

He is however more likeable, more sympathetic than Oedipus (at Colonus) and Electra. Part of it, I suppose, is that he’s still capable of trust. 

3/ Philoctetes asks Neoptolemus about Thersites (whom I remember from Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida): is he dead? Neoptolemus says he’s alive. 

“PHILOCTETES He must be: for no evil yet was crushed.

The Heavens will ever shield it. ’Tis their sport

To turn back all things rancorous and malign

From going down to the grave, and send instead

The good and true. Oh, how shall we commend

Such dealings, how defend them? When I praise

Things god-like, I find evil in the Gods.” 

Contrast that with this speech, to Odysseus:  

“PHILOCTETES […] Perish!—So ye shall,

For the wrong done me, if the Heavens be just.

And that they are, I know…” 

I like that contrast. Makes Philoctetes more alive.  

He tries to persuade Neoptolemus: 

“PHILOCTETES […] Convey me home, and thou, in Scyros dwelling,

Leave to their evil doom those evil men.

So thou shalt win a twofold gratitude

From me and from my father, and not seem,

Helping vile men, to be as vile as they.”

And he’s right—why should he help the Greeks against Troy? 

“PHILOCTETES […] And do not linger to take thought of Troy.

Enough that name hath echoed in my groans.” 

What does it have to do with him? He wants to leave the desert island and go home. That is not an option however—not just an option for Philoctetes to take, but I also mean not an option for Sophocles to rewrite the myth—Heracles appears at the end, as deus ex machina, promising to heal the wound, but Philoctetes is still going to Troy.