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"Only Philoctetes excelled
me with the bow in the land of the Trojans, when we
Achaeans shot."
[Odysseus to the
Phaeacians. Homer,
Odyssey
8.220]
"Destruction shall have
end when you are dead, the author of our
bane." [Philoctetes to
Paris. Quintus Smyrnaeus,
The
Fall of Troy 10.229]
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Philoctetes, who is counted among the
ARGONAUTS, among the
SUITORS OF HELEN,
among the ACHAEAN
LEADERS, and among those who hid inside the
WOODEN HORSE, is the
archer who inherited the bow and arrows of
Heracles 1. Because of
a wound he did not participate in the
Trojan War during
several years, staying in the island of
Lemnos. But he was
fetched by the Achaeans, and having being cured of
his wound, he killed Paris
near the end of the war.
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I. Death of
Heracles
1
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Appearance of Philoctetes
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Philoctetes comes into the story at the moment
when Heracles 1 was
about to die.
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Heracles 1 prepares
to perform a sacrifice
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It is said that
Heracles 1 wished to
perform a sacrifice in the sanctuary at Cenaeon,
which is in Euboea, and for that purpose he sent
his attendant Lichas 1 to ask his wife Deianira 1
for the shirt and robe that he used to wear in his
rituals.
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Lichas 1 talks too much
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But Lichas 1, having a very long tongue, told
Deianira 1 about the love affair between her
husband Heracles 1 and
Iole, daughter of Eurytus 4, son of Melaneus 5, son
of Apollo, all of them
splendid archers, being as they were guided by this
god. Eurytus 4 is also known for having owned the
bow that later became
Odysseus', and with
which the SUITORS OF
PENELOPE were massacred.
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Deianira 1 uses love-charm
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So when Deianira 1 learned from Lichas 1 about
her husband's fancies, she thought the time had
come to make use of the supposed love-charm, which
the centaur Nessus 2 had given her, and she
anointed with it the shirt of
Heracles 1.
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The trouble with the centaur
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Now, this centaur had been hired by
Heracles 1 to ferry
his wife across a river. But the
CENTAURS being
unreliable in these and other matters, Nessus 2
took the chance to violate the woman he was
carrying on his back. However, when
Heracles 1 noticed the
trick, he shot the centaur with one of his arrows,
which carried the poison of the Hydra, a monster
killed by him years ago. The clever centaur then,
feeling death coming upon him, made a charm and
soaked it in his own poisoned blood, telling
Deianira 1 to use it whenever she felt
Heracles 1's love had
diminished. And this ridiculous tale the naïve
wife swallowed, keeping the charm to save some
future day.
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Lichas 1 victim of
Heracles 1's temper
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Now Lichas 1, of the long tongue and the short
wits, brought with him the garments, and gave them
to his master. And when
Heracles 1 put them
on, the toxic drug began immediately its
destructive work, corroding his skin. Now
Heracles 1, who did
not become famous for his good temper, ended Lichas
1's life right away, hurling him down into the
Euboean sea, where he turned into a rock, as they
say.
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Heracles 1's
sickness gets worse
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But Lichas 1's death could not provide a cure
for him, and he disbanded his army and crossed to
Trachis, which is in Thessaly. And while his
friends were dispatched to
Delphi in order to
receive advice, Deianira 1, seeing that the
sufferings of her husband only increased, and being
ashamed of her fatal error, hanged herself.
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What the oracle said
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The oracle at Delphi
replied that Heracles
1 should be taken with all his arms to Mount
Oeta, which is in Trachinian territory between
Thessaly and Aetolia, where a huge pyre should be
built near him, leaving all other arrangements to
Zeus.
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Philoctetes helps
Heracles 1 to die
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So they did and
Heracles 1, having
abandoned all hope, ascended the pyre. And resting
there, he asked every one who passed by or came up
to see him, to put torch to the pyre. But no one
wished to obey him, until Philoctetes came by. And
for having the disposition to comply with his
wishes, Philoctetes received as a gift the bow and
arrows of Heracles 1,
and then lighted the pyre.
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II. Philoctetes'
subsequent deeds
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Philoctetes acquires the bow and arrows
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That is how Philoctetes came into the story, and
he not only gained Fame
for helping a famous man to die, but he also
acquired the weapons of the same man, who, as they
say, was immediately after his death received in
heaven, not leaving behind him a single bone. For
Iolaus 1, his charioteer, came to gather them when
the pyre was wholly consumed, and found nothing.
Yet others have said that it was not Philoctetes
who set a light to the pyre, but his father Poeas.
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One of the ACHAEAN
LEADERS
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Years after the death of
Heracles 1, the
seducer Paris came to
Sparta and abducted, with
or without her consent, Queen
Helen, taking her to
Troy. And because of this,
a powerful fleet and army gathered in Aulis in
order to sail against that city and claim
Helen back. And among the
ACHAEAN LEADERS
who joined the coalition and fought in the
Trojan War, was
Philoctetes, lord of Olizon, Meliboea, and other
Thessalian places. For he, as many other leaders,
had sworn The Oath of
Tyndareus [see
SUITORS OF HELEN].
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Contribution and replacement of Philoctetes
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Philoctetes contributed with seven warships to
the alliance, but he did not reach
Troy until much later,
being replaced as chief by Medon 1, son of Oileus 1
and Rhene 1, and therefore brother of
Ajax 2, according to some
reports. Medon 1 died in the war, killed by
Aeneas.
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Trouble in Tenedos
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After putting to sea from Aulis, the Achaean
army came to the island of Tenedos, which is off
the coast of the Troad. There a number of
unpleasant things took place. For
Achilles killed King
Tenes, disregarding his own mother Thetis, who had
warned him not to kill that king, or otherwise he
would himself die by the hand of
Apollo, who allegedly was
Tenes' father.
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Snake bites Philoctetes
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So when Achilles,
after losing his temper, had sent the king to
another world, the Achaeans found it necessary to
offer a sacrifice to
Apollo. And while they
were offering to the god, a water-snake came out
from the altar and bit Philoctetes.
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Uncertain scene of events
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Others have said that this was the tutelary
snake of the nymph Chryse 2, who punished
Philoctetes for having profaned the soil of the
shrine, and this happened, they say, not in Tenedos
but in the small island of Chryse, off the coast of
the Troad, which was later overwhelmed by the
waves, disappearing in the depths. Still others
affirm that the snake struck Philoctetes in the
island of Lemnos, and
that it was Hera who sent
it against him, the reason being that Philoctetes
alone had dared to build the funeral pyre of
Heracles 1, whom
Hera disliked for being the
living proof of her husband's love affair with
Alcmena.
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Terrible wound
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In any case, the wound caused by the snake
proved to be incurable, and the stench which it
produced was so difficult to endure that the
commander in chief of the army,
Agamemnon, decided to
get rid of Philoctetes, putting him ashore in the
island of Lemnos, where
the fleet came after leaving Tenedos.
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Philoctetes abandoned
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This is how Philoctetes, instead of fighting at
Troy, spent many years in
Lemnos, using the deadly
weapon he had received from
Heracles 1, not to
slay Trojans but to shoot birds in the wilderness
which he turned into meals in order to survive. For
the army abandoned him, setting out but a few rags,
as though for a beggar, and leaving very little
food. As he later recalls:
"For my
stomach's needs this bow provided, bringing down
doves on the wing. And whatever my string-sped
arrow might strike, in pain I would crawl to it
myself, dragging my wretched foot behind
me." [Philoctetes to
Neoptolemus.
Sophocles,
Philoctetes
290]
Others say, however, that the Lemnian shepherd
Iphimachus, son of Dolops 3, took care of the sick
Philoctetes.
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The need for his bow
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As time went by, the difficulties of the
Achaeans in the war were at least as hard as the
solitude of Philoctetes. For many years had passed
and Troy could not be
taken. So in the tenth year, the seer
Calchas declared that
the city would be taken if the Achaeans had the bow
and arrows of Heracles
1 fighting on their side. Others have said that
this prophecy was uttered by the Trojan seer
Helenus 1 when he was
captured by Odysseus.
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Philoctetes joins the war
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When what had been prophesied was known to all,
the Achaeans sent
Odysseus and
Diomedes 2 (or as some
say Neoptolemus
instead of Diomedes 2)
to fetch the bow, which they did, either through
persuasion or by force. And when the embassy (some
have said it was just
Diomedes 2) had in
some way or another accomplished its mission,
Philoctetes, following the bow and the arrows,
joined the fight at Troy,
after being healed either by Podalirius or by
Machaon, both sons of
Asclepius.
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Those killed by Philoctetes
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Some say that Philoctetes shot Acamas 3, son of
the Trojan Elder Antenor
1, but others have said that Acamas 3 was
killed by Meriones, the squire of King Idomeneus 1
of Crete. One Admetus 2 is
also reported to have been shot by Philoctetes, and
the same is said of the Trojan warriors Deioneus 3,
Peirasus 2, and Medon 4, another son of
Antenor 1. But his
greatest achievement in the war was the shooting of
Paris, who died a painful
death because of Philoctetes' poisoned arrow.
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Last adventures
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After the war, Philoctetes was among those who
were dispersed by the naval disaster at cape
Caphareus [see Map: The
Returns]. He then reached home at Meliboea in
northern Hellas, but having been expelled by a
sedition, he emigrated to Campania in Italy. There
he fought the Lucanians, settling finally in
Crimissa near Croton and Thurium, in the southern
part of the country, where he founded a sanctuary
of Apollo, to whom he
dedicated his famous bow. And the Lucanians, they
say, were of the same race as the Samnites, and
were later conquered by Rome.
The death of Philoctetes has not been reported.
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