Source Verification: Philoctetes

What is the story of Philoctetes?

Philoctetes was a Greek archer who owned the bow of Heracles. Homer's Iliad lists him as a leader of seven ships, then says the Greeks left him on Lemnos with a wound from a water-snake. Apollodorus's Epitome says the wound stank so badly that Odysseus put him ashore on Agamemnon's orders. In the tenth year of the war, a prophecy said Troy could not fall without the bow. Odysseus fetched him, a physician healed him, and he shot Paris.

Source: Apollodorus, Epitome 5.8

What did Odysseus do to Philoctetes?

He abandoned him and later tricked him. Apollodorus's Epitome says Odysseus, on Agamemnon's orders, put the wounded Philoctetes ashore on Lemnos. In Sophocles's Philoctetes, Odysseus admits in the opening lines that he left him there. Ten years later he returns with Neoptolemus and tells the young man to win the bow by deceit, since force would fail against arrows that never miss. Philoctetes curses the sons of Atreus and Odysseus for his suffering, and at one point aims an arrow at him.

Source: Sophocles, Philoctetes 1-11

What was the relationship between Philoctetes and Hercules in Greek mythology?

Philoctetes inherited the bow of Heracles, the Greek name of Hercules. Ovid's Metamorphoses says the dying hero told Philoctetes to light his pyre on Mount Oeta and gave him the bow and quiver in return. In Sophocles's Philoctetes, the hero himself says he did that service for the son of Zeus and received the bow for it. At the end of the play Heracles, now a god, appears to him and sends him to Troy to kill Paris with the bow.

Source: Sophocles, Philoctetes 799-803

Why is Philoctetes a satyr in Hercules?

Only in Disney's 1997 film. There Philoctetes, called Phil and voiced by Danny DeVito, is an old satyr who trains heroes, Hercules among them. The ancient Philoctetes is a man, a Greek archer and the son of Poeas in Homer's Odyssey and Sophocles's play. He never trains Heracles. He receives his bow, and in Sophocles the deified Heracles guides him instead. The film took the name and left the story behind.

Source: Homer, Odyssey 3.188-191

Where was Philoctetes bitten by the snake?

The sources disagree. Sophocles's Philoctetes says he came too near the serpent guarding the roofless sanctuary of Chryse. Pausanias describes Chryse as an island near Lemnos, later swallowed by the sea, where the accident was said to have happened. Apollodorus's Epitome puts the bite at a sacrifice to Apollo, told right after the Greeks land at Tenedos. Hyginus's Fabulae places it on Lemnos and says Juno sent the snake. Homer's Iliad only says the Achaeans left him on Lemnos with the wound.

Source: Sophocles, Philoctetes 1326-1328

Why did the Greeks need Philoctetes to take Troy?

Because a prophecy said the city could not fall without the bow of Heracles, which he held. Apollodorus's Epitome gives the prophecy to the Greek seer Calchas in the tenth year of the war. In Sophocles's Philoctetes it comes from Helenus, a captured Trojan seer, who adds that Troy must fall that very summer. Sophocles's Odysseus puts it plainly: his arrows alone will capture Troy. Once healed at Troy, Philoctetes shot Paris with that bow.

Source: Sophocles, Philoctetes 1336-1342

• Homer, Iliad 2.716-725
• Homer, Odyssey 3.188-191
• Homer, Odyssey 8.219-220
• Apollodorus, Library 2.5.2
• Apollodorus, Library 2.7.7
• Apollodorus, Epitome 3.26
• Apollodorus, Epitome 3.27
• Apollodorus, Epitome 5.8
• Apollodorus, Epitome 6.15b
• Sophocles, Philoctetes 1-11
• Sophocles, Philoctetes 111-115
• Sophocles, Philoctetes 261-270
• Sophocles, Philoctetes 311-313
• Sophocles, Philoctetes 762-778
• Sophocles, Philoctetes 799-803
• Sophocles, Philoctetes 1286-1305
• Sophocles, Philoctetes 1326-1328
• Sophocles, Philoctetes 1336-1342
• Sophocles, Philoctetes 1409-1433
• Sophocles, Philoctetes 1437-1438
• Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.172-272
• Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.45-54
• Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.22.6
• Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.33.4
• Hyginus, Fabulae 102