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    Philoctetes
    Philoctetes
    Philoctetes
    Ebook60 pages40 minutes

    Philoctetes

    By Sophocles

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Sophocles' Philoctetes begins with their arrival on the island. Odysseus explains to Neoptolemus that he must perform a shameful action in order to garner future glory - to take Philoctetes by tricking him with a false story while Odysseus hides. Neoptolemus is portrayed as an honorable boy, and so it takes some persuading to get him to play this part. To gain Philoctetes's trust, Neoptolemus tricks Philoctetes into thinking he hates Odysseus as well. Neoptolemus does this by telling Philoctetes that Odysseus has his father's (Achilles) armor. He tells Philoctetes that this armor was his right by birth, and Odysseus would not give it up to him. After gaining Philoctetes' trust and offering him a ride home, Neoptolemus is allowed to look at the bow of Heracles.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSovereign
    Release dateOct 15, 2015
    ISBN9781910833995
    Author

    Sophocles

    Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than or contemporary with those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides.

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    Reviews for Philoctetes

    3.5/5

    41 ratings4 reviews

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    • 3/5
      A new translation of the old play, this is rendered in modern English, including modern slang. While keeping the basic storyline intact, it loses most of its original poetry. The goal here was plainly to make it more accessible to modern readers who don't want to work too hard at their literature. The ease of reading does not make up for the loss of the ancient sound. The story is another stage in the Trojan war, of a Greek hero left by his shipmates to die of his wounds on a deserted island; now the Greeks want his weapons, which were left with him, and they determine to get them back by deceit or force. A concise telling, not a lot of wasted time, and an interesting legend.
    • 4/5
      Philoctetes is the story of the moaning hero that Odysseus left on an island but has returned to with Neoptolemus (son of Achilles) to retrieve the bow. In convincing Neoptolemus to take part in his ploy: "I well know, my son, that by nature thou are not apt to utter or contrive such guile; yet, seeing that victory is a sweet prize to gain, bend they will thereto; our honesty shall be shown forth another time. Son of brave sire, time was when I too, in my youth, had a slow tongue and a ready hand: but now, when I come forth to the proof, I see that words, not deeds, are ever the masters among men."
    • 4/5
      Almost one of the all-time great dramatizations of the wounded heart and psyche. Philoctetes is rejected by his fellows for the stinking wound that he incurs committing an act of kindness that no one else will (lighting Heracles’s funeral pyre); he is exiled to an island, Homo sacer, anti-sirene, to writhe alone and scream and hear his screams echo from the cliffs, mocking his solitude, his lost humanity. But then they need him! And he can speak to people again! And then he’s a person again! And he weeps when Neoptolemus finds him and just sits with him for a while. But it's all a trick—sleazy Odysseus wants his mighty bow for the war effort; and while that hurts, it also puts him in the position fantasized about by everyone who ever felt alone and unloved: the one who can tell them to fuck off and have them beg him to come back and say a hundred times how sorry they are. But just like in real life, they don’t give any more of a shit than they ever did; rather than beg, they trick him again, hurt him once more, compound his trauma. It’s an unresolvable knot, and the play shows that so well—which is why it’s such a shame when Heracles deus ex machinates in to tell Mr Moral High Ground to fucking get in the boat and go kill Paris already. Cheap, I mean by “a shame.” Probably there’s some Greek drama rule why that ending is better and not worse that Aristotle could explain to us, but Aristotle’s not here right now and so this play gets a perhaps unnecessarily punitive four stars.
    • 2/5
      This short play did not really do it for me. The themes expressed, as well as the plot and character development, were not to my liking and seemed to be sorely lacking. These reasons are why I give it it's low ranking.

      2 stars.

    Book preview

    Philoctetes - Sophocles

    Sophocles

    Sophocles

    Philoctetes

    LONDON ∙ NEW YORK ∙ TORONTO ∙ SAO PAULO ∙ MOSCOW

    PARIS ∙ MADRID ∙ BERLIN ∙ ROME ∙ MEXICO CITY ∙ MUMBAI ∙ SEOUL ∙ DOHA

    TOKYO ∙ SYDNEY ∙ CAPE TOWN ∙ AUCKLAND ∙ BEIJING

    New Edition

    Published by Sovereign Classic

    www.sovereignclassic.net

    This Edition

    First published in 2015

    Copyright © 2015 Sovereign Classic

    Contents

    DRAMATIS PERSONAE

    PHILOCTETES

    DRAMATIS PERSONAE

    ULYSSES, King of Ithaca

    NEOPTOLEMUS, son of Achilles

    PHILOCTETES, son of Poeas and Companion of HERCULES

    A SPY

    HERCULES

    CHORUS, composed of the companions of ULYSSES and NEOPTOLEMUS

    PHILOCTETES

    A lonely region on the shore of Lemnos, before a steep cliff in which is the entrance to PHILOCTETES’ cave. ULYSSES, NEOPTOLEMUS and an attendant enter.

    ULYSSES At length, my noble friend, thou bravest son

    Of a brave father- father of us all,

    The great Achilles- we have reached the shore

    Of sea-girt Lemnos, desert and forlorn,

    Where never tread of human step is seen,

    Or voice of mortal heard, save his alone,

    Poor Philoctetes, Poeas’ wretched son,

    Whom here I left; for such were my commands

    From Grecia’s chiefs, when by his fatal wound

    Oppressed, his groans and execrations dreadful

    Alarmed our hosts, our sacred rites profaned,

    And interrupted holy sacrifice.

    But why should I repeat the tale? The time

    Admits not of delay. We must not linger,

    Lest he discover our arrival here,

    And all our purposed fraud to draw him hence

    Be ineffectual. Lend me then thy aid.

    Surveying round thee, canst thou see a rock

    With double entrance- to the sun’s warm rays

    In winter open, and in summer’s heat

    Giving free passage to the welcome breeze?

    A little to the left there is a fountain

    Of living water, where, if yet he breathes,

    He slakes his thirst. If aught thou seest of this

    Inform me; so shall each to each impart

    Counsel most fit, and serve our common cause.

    NEOPTOLEMUS (leaving ULYSSES a little behind him) If I mistake not,

    I behold a cave,

    E’en such as thou describst.

    ULYSSES Dost thou? which way?

    NEOPTOLEMUS Yonder it is; but no path leading thither,

    Or trace of human footstep.

    ULYSSES In his cell

    A chance but he hath lain down to rest:

    Look if he hath not.

    NEOPTOLEMUS (advancing to the cave) Not a creature there.

    ULYSSES Nor food, nor mark of household preparation?

    NEOPTOLEMUS A rustic bed of scattered leaves.

    ULYSSES What more?

    NEOPTOLEMUS A wooden bowl, the work of some rude hand,

    With a few sticks for fuel.

    ULYSSES This is all

    His little treasure here.

    NEOPTOLEMUS Unhappy man!

    Some linen for his wounds.

    ULYSSES This must be then

    His place of habitation; far from hence

    He cannot roam; distempered as he is,

    It were impossible. He is but gone

    A little way for needful food, or herb

    Of power to ‘suage and mitigate his pain,

    Wherefore despatch this servant to some place

    Of observation, whence he may espy

    His every motion, lest he rush upon us.

    There’s not a Grecian whom his soul so much

    Could wish to crush beneath him as Ulysses.

    (He makes a signal to the Attendant. who retires.)

    NEOPTOLEMUS He’s gone to guard each avenue; and now,

    If thou hast

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