About the work
Tragedy by Sophocles, first performed in 409 BC at the City Dionysia in Athens, where it won first prize.
Plot
The archer Philoctetes has been marooned on the island of Lemnos by the Greeks because of a festering wound and his cries of pain. Since his bow is needed to win the war at Troy, Odysseus and the young Neoptolemus are sent to retrieve him. Neoptolemus first wins Philoctetes' trust through deceit, then, overcome by pity, returns the bow to him. Only the god Heracles, appearing at the end, persuades the embittered Philoctetes to return to Troy.
Cultural significance
Through the character of Neoptolemus, Sophocles stages a conflict between political calculation, a sense of honour and compassion that remains unresolved without divine intervention. The play continues to be revisited for its treatment of suffering, exclusion and the trauma of war, including in Heiner Müller's 1965 adaptation.