PHILOCTETES

The son of Posas, king of the Malians in OEta. He inherited the bow and arrows of Heracles (q.v.). He was leader of seven ships in the expedition against Troy; but, on the way out, was bitten by a snake at Lemnos, or the small island of Chryse near Lemnos, and, on account of the intolerable stench caused by the wound, was abandoned at Lemnos on the advice of Odysseus. Here in his sickness he dragged out a miserable life till the tenth year of the war. Then, however, on account of Helenus' prophecy that Troy could only be conquered by the arrows of Heracles, Odysseus and Diomedes went to fetch him, and he was healed by Machaon. After he had slain Paris, Troy was conquered. He was one, of the heroes who came safe home again. [The story of Philoctetes was dramatized by Aeschylus and Euripides (B.C. 431), as well as by Sophocles (409). It is also the theme of numerous monuments of ancient art. See Jebb's introduction to Soph. Phil., P. xxxvii.]