Philoctetes

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Picture of Philoctetes by Germain-Jean Drouais , around 1786

Philoctetes ( ancient Greek Φιλοκτήτης , German also Philoctetes ) is in Greek mythology the son of King Poias ' of Meliboia in Thessaly and the Demonassa (or the Methone ). As one of the Argonauts, he accompanied Jason on the search for the Golden Fleece and took part in the Trojan War on the side of the Greeks .

myth

Heracles with Philoctetes at the stake (grave relief, 2nd century AD)
Philoctetes on the island of Lemnos by Guillaume Guillon-Lethière

According to legend, Philoctetes and his weapons played a decisive role in the conquest of Troy. In Homer only mentioned several times in short, the forecast in later seals (was Kykliker , tragedians ) developed.

In his youth he was friends with the Greek hero Herakles and his arms bearer. When no one could be found for the self-immolation of Heracles who would light the pyre he had piled up for this purpose on Mount Oita , Philoctetes took over the task. In return, Heracles left him his bow and the poison arrows that had been dipped into the bile of the hydra .

When the Trojan prince Paris stole Helena of Sparta , Philoktetes, as one of the leaders of the Greek armed forces, sailed seven ships against Troy . On the way, however, he was bitten by a snake, probably an adder , while resting on Chryse Island . Since the Greeks could not bear his cries of pain and the stench of his wound, Odysseus undertook to expose him to the island of Lemnos with a ruse , which caused him the long-lasting resentment of Philoctetes.

In the tenth year of the war, the Greeks decided to bring him back, as the Trojan seer and son of Priam Helenus had prophesied that the war could only be won with the help of Heracles' arrows. At the same time the dead Heracles appeared to the ailing Philoctetes and offered him the prospect of healing before Troy. Odysseus and Achilles ' son Neoptolemus (according to another version Odysseus and Diomedes ), sent by the Greeks to Lemnos, found the seriously ill Philoctetes on the island. After being suspended, he had vowed never to fight for the Greeks again. Odysseus therefore sent Neoptolemus to the island to persuade Philoctetes to give him the bow. According to one version, he fell on the beach and the bow fell from his hands. Neoptolemus could easily have got his bow and arrows, but instead helped the fallen victim up and then, with Odysseus' help, persuaded him to come to Troy. When he got there he was healed by Machaon (or Podaleirios or Asclepius ). As a reconciliation, the Greeks gave Philoctetes rich gifts: seven Trojan virgins, twelve tripods and twenty horses. Philoctetes immediately shot Paris with one of Heracles' arrows.

He was considered the best archer of the Greeks; In the Odyssey, Homer lets Odysseus say of himself that, according to Philoctetes, he is probably the best archer.

Philoctetes is said to have returned to his homeland after the fall of Troy and after an uprising against him was thrown to Italy, where he is said to have founded several cities (including Petilia in Calabria ) and to have consecrated the arrows of Heracles to Apollo. Then he died in the war.

Edits

The Wounded Philoctetes , painting by Nicolai Abildgaard , 1775

Antiquity

The Philoctetes material was already taken up in antiquity by, among others, Pindar , Virgil , Ovid , Seneca , Quintilian and Quintus of Smyrna . The three great classical playwrights also worked on the subject. The texts of the dramas by Aeschylus and Euripides are lost, that of 409 BC. Chr., Premiered Philoctetes of Sophocles is received. There is also a comparison of the three works by Dion Chrysostom .

Modern times

  • François Fénelon : Les Aventures de Télemaque. 1699. In it, Philoctetes revokes his hatred of Odysseus.
  • André Gide : Philoctète ou Le Traité des trois morales. 1899.
  • Bernt von Heiseler : Philoctetes. After the drama of Sophocles. Ehrenwirth, Munich 1948.
  • Heiner Müller : Philoctetes. First performance in 1968.

literature

Web links

Commons : Philoktetes  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ The tradition is - as with most of the ancient legends - inconsistent and handed down in numerous, sometimes contradicting versions; Karl Fiehn still provides the most detailed information : Philoctetes. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XIX, 2, Stuttgart 1938, Col. 2500-2509 ..
  2. ↑ According to another version, it was the betrayal of Herakles' grave that the demigod avenged by poisoning his feet; see. Wilhelm Vollmer: Dictionary of the mythology of all peoples. Revised by Wolfgang Binder. With an introduction to the mythological science of Johannes Minckwitz. 3. Edition. Hoffmann, Stuttgart 1874. Reprint Verlag Leipzig, Holzminden 1994, p. 378.
  3. ↑ Homer, Odyssey 3, 188-190; Jan Stenger: Philoctetes. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 9, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01479-7 , Sp. 833.
  4. ^ Wilhelm Vollmer: Dictionary of the mythology of all peoples. Holzminden 1994, p. 379; Jan Stenger: Philoctetes. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 9, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01479-7 , Sp. 833.
  5. ↑ Hamartia in Philoctetes? (with bibliography)
  6. ↑ On the Sophoclean Philoctetes Andreas Schnebele: The epic sources of the Sophoclean Philoctetes. The post iliac in the early Greek epic. Dissertation, University of Tübingen 1988; Tamara Visser: Investigations on the Sophoclean Philoctetes. The triggering event in the piece design (= contributions to antiquity. Volume 110). Teubner, Stuttgart / Leipzig 1998, ISBN 3-519-07659-4 ; Manfred Landfester: Sophocles. In: Manfred Landfester (ed.): History of ancient texts. Lexicon of authors and works (= Der Neue Pauly . Supplements. Volume 2). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2007, ISBN 978-3-476-02030-7 , pp. 552–556 (contains a list of all manuscripts, editions of works and translations).
  7. ↑ Dion Chrysostom 52.