Philoctetes
mythological figure · 9 works · 15 mentions · 23 anchored passages
son of Poeas · Poeas' son · he · lord of the bow of Heracles · native of Malis · son of Oetean Poeas · son of Poias · stranger · the archer son of Poeas · this man
in the texts
Orations
Greek archer, formerly abandoned due to a wound/disease, later a key reinforcement.
and Alexander dies, shot down by Philoctetes.
but Neoptolemus the son of Achilles, quite young, and Philoctetes, formerly disregarded because of his disease, and such helps from home, weak and scanty.
But when Philoctetes in no way yields nor is persuaded, but begs Neoptolemus, as he had promised, to convey him to Hellas, he promises and is ready to do this, until Heracles, appearing, persuades Philoctetes to sail willingly to Troy.
On Moral Ends
Mythological Greek hero abandoned on Lemnos, suffering for years from a poisoned wound
then, what is that slackening, when both the memory of past pain is fresh, and the fear of pain to come and impending torments him?
Wherefore it must be thought base — I do not say to feel pain, for that is sometimes necessary — but to defile that Lemnian rock with the cry of Philoctetes, 'which, resounding with his wailing, lament, groan, and roarings, gives back, all dumb, his tearful voice.
He, when he was tortured by unbearable pains, yet prolonged his life by fowling — 'slow, he pierced the swift with the stroke of his arrows, standing, the flying,' as it is in Accius — and made coverings for his body from the weaving of feathers.
Tusculan Disputations
Mythological Greek hero wounded and abandoned, invoked repeatedly as an example of a sufferer under great pain.
\" But if the pain is as great as that of Philoctetes?
Look at Philoctetes, to whom one must grant his groaning;
Can you, then, call Philoctetes there a brave man, or great-souled, or patient, or grave, or one who despises human things —?
Odyssey
Greek hero, son of Poias, reported to have returned home safely from Troy.
They say the Myrmidons returned home safely under Achilles' son Neoptolemos;
Philoctetes was the only man who could shoot better than I could when we Achaeans were before the dêmos of the Trojans.
Philoctetes
Philoctetes is Poeas' son, abandoned on Lemnos with a serpent-wound and holder of Heracles' bow, whose return is needed for Troy's fall.
Odysseus:
Odysseus:
Odysseus:
On Fate
Mythological Greek hero wounded by a serpent and abandoned on the island of Lemnos, used as the key example distinguishing eternally true propositions from efficiently caused events.
For before Philoctetes had been wounded by the serpent’s bite, what cause was contained in the nature of things that he was going to be left on the island of Lemnos?
so that ‘Philoctetes will be wounded’ was true through all the ages before, and ‘He will not be wounded’ was false—unless perhaps we wish to follow the opinion of the Epicureans, who say that such propositions are neither true nor false, or, when they are ashamed of that, nonetheless say what is more shameless still:
Iliad
Skilled archer left behind on Lemnos after being bitten by a poisonous snake, whose contingent is now led by Medon in his absence.
And those that held Methone and Thaumacia, with Meliboia and rugged Olizon, these were led by the skillful archer Philoctetes, and they had seven ships, each with fifty oarsmen all of them good archers;
Pythian
The wounded archer of the Trojan War whose skill was indispensable despite his suffering, used as a comparison for Hieron.
But now he has gone to battle in the manner of Philoctetes;
Chrestomathy
Greek hero bitten by a water-snake and abandoned on Lemnos due to the stench of his wound.
and while they are feasting, Philoctetes, struck by a water-snake, is left behind on Lemnos because of the foul stench;