In Greek mythology, Philoctetes (also Philoktêtês or Philocthetes, Φιλοκτήτης) was the son of King Poeas of Meliboea in Thessaly. He was a Greek hero, famed as an archer, and was a participant in the Trojan War. He was the subject of at least two plays by Sophocles, and one each by Aeschylus and Euripides. However, only one Sophoclean play survives, the others are lost. He is also mentioned in Homer's Iliad; Book 2 describes his exile on the island of Lemnos, his wound by snake-bite, and his eventual recall by the Greeks. The recall of Philoctetes is told in the lost epic Little Iliad, where his retrieval was accomplished by Odysseus and Diomedes. // Greek mythology consists in part in a large collection of narratives that explain the origins of the world and detail the lives and adventures of a wide variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines. ... In Greek mythology, Poeas, or Poias was one of the Argonauts and a friend of Heracles. ... In Greek mythology, Meliboea referred to two different people. ... Map showing Thessaly periphery in Greece Thessaly (Θεσσαλια; modern Greek Thessalía; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is one of the 13 peripheries of Greece, and is further sub-divided into 4 prefectures. ... This article is about the mythological Greek war. ... A Roman bust. ... Aeschylus This article is about the ancient Greek playwright. ... A statue of Euripides Euripides (Greek: Ευριπίδης) (c. ... The Homère Caetani bust at the Louvre, a 2nd century Roman copy of a 2nd century BC Greek original. ... The Iliad (Ancient Greek Ιλιάς, Ilias) is, along with the Odyssey, one of the two major Greek epic poems traditionally attributed to Homer, a supposedly blind Ionian poet. ... The Little Iliad (Greek: Ἰλιὰς μικρά, Ilias mikra; Latin: Ilias parva) is a lost epic of ancient Greek literature. ... Odysseus and the Sirens. ... Diomêdês (Gk:Διομήδης - God-like cunning) is a hero in Greek Mythology, mostly known for his participation in the Trojan War. ...

Philoctetes was stranded on the Island of Lemnos or Chryse by the Greeks before the start of the Trojan War. There are at least four separate tales about what happened to strand Philoctetes on his journey to Troy, but all indicate that he received a wound on his foot that festered and had a terrible smell. One version holds that Philoctetes was bitten by a snake that Hera sent to molest him as punishment for his service to Heracles. (As he was the only one who would light Heracles' funeral pyre, Heracles bestowed on Philoctetes his magical bow and arrows.) Another tradition says that the Greeks forced Philoctetes to show them where Heracles's ashes were deposited. Philoctetes would not break his oath by speech, so he went to the spot and placed his foot upon the site. Immediately, he was injured in the foot that touched the soil over the ashes. Yet another tradition has it that when the Achaeans, en route to Troy, came to the island of Tenedos, Achilles angered Apollo by killing King Tenes, allegedly the god's son. When, in expiation, the Achaeans offered a sacrifice to Achilles, a snake came out from the altar and bit Philoctetes. Finally, it is said that Philoctetes received his terrible wound on the island of Chryse, when he unknowingly trespassed into the shrine of the nymph after whom the island was named (this is the version in the extant play by Sophocles). Lemnos (mod. ... This article is about the people and places of Greek myth. ... In the Olympian pantheon of classical Greek Mythology, Hêra (IPA pronunciation: ; Greek or ) was the wife and sister of Zeus. ... Hercules, a Roman bronze (Louvre Museum) In Greek mythology, Heracles, or Herakles (glory of Hera, Ἥρα + κλέος, )(Etruscan Hercle) was a divine hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, stepson of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus. ...

Regardless of the cause of the wound, Philoctetes was exiled by the Greeks and was angry at the treatment he received from Odysseus, who had advised the Atreidae to strand him. Medôn took control of Philoctetes' men. Philoctetes remained on Lemnos, alone, for ten years. In Greek mythology, the Atreidae, or Atreidai, refer to Agamemnon and Menelaus, sons of Atreus— in English, the Atreides. ... In Greek mythology, there were two people called Medôn. ...

Helenus, son of King Priam of Troy, was forced to reveal, under torture, that one of the conditions of the Greeks winning the Trojan War, was that they had to use the bow and arrows of Heracles. Upon hearing this, Odysseus then retrieved Philoctetes from Lemnos. (As Sophocles writes it in his play named Philoctetes, Odysseus is accompanied by Neoptolomus. Other versions of the myth don't include Neoptolemus.) Philoctetes' wound was healed by Machaon or Podalirius, sons of the gods' physician Asclepius. Philoctetes then killed many Trojan heros, including Paris, son of Priam and husband of Helen. After the war, he went to Italy and founded the town of Petilia in Calabria and establish the Brutti. In Greek mythology, Helenus was the son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. ... In Greek mythology, Priam (Greek Πρίαμος) was the king of Troy during the Trojan War, and son of Laomedon. ... Walls of the excavated city of Troy Troy (Ancient Greek Τροία Troia, also Ίλιον Ilion; Latin: Troia, Ilium) is a legendary city, center of the Trojan War, described in the Trojan War cycle, especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer. ... A Roman bust. ... The Philoctetes is a play by Sophocles written about 410 BC. Its subject is Philoctetes, the friend of Herakles, who was also a participant in the Trojan War. ... For the Machaon of the Trojan War, see Machaon (mythology). ... In Greek mythology, Podalirius was a son of Asclepius. ... Judgement of Paris by Lucas Cranach the Elder (c. ... In Greek mythology, Priam (Greek Πρίαμος) was the king of Troy during the Trojan War, and son of Laomedon. ... Petilia or Petelia was a city on the coast of Bruttium, traditionally founded by Philoctetes. ... Calabria, formerly Brutium, is a region in southern Italy which occupies the toe of the Italian peninsula south of Naples. ... The Brutti were an ancient people of southern Italy, occupying the interior of Bruttium (The Southern part of Italy, close to Sicilia). ...

In modern literature

The legend of Philoctetes was used by André Gide in his play Philoctète. Sophocles' play forms the basis of an essay by Edmund Wilson The Wound and the Bow, in the book of the same name. André Paul Guillaume Gide (November 22, 1869 – February 19, 1951) was a French author and, at times, a spokesman for gay rights (disputed — see talk page). ... Edmund Wilson (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer, noted chiefly for his literary criticism. ...

The legend of Philoctetes was, in part, the inspiration for Robert Silverberg's science fiction novel The Man in the Maze. At the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, August 2005 Robert Silverberg (January 15, 1935, Brooklyn, New York) is a prolific American author best known for writing science fiction, a multiple winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... The Man in the Maze is a novel written by Robert Silverberg, published in 1968. ...

The 1997 Disney animated movie Hercules takes considerable license with Greek myths. In it, Philoctetes (usually referred to simply as "Phil") is a satyr and a trainer of aspiring heroes who has often been disappointed by his trainees' shortcomings. After some initial reluctance, Phil agrees to train the callow young Hercules, and is ultimately gratified when the people of Thebes refer to the mighty and triumphant Hercules as "Phil's boy." The actor Danny DeVito provided Philoctetes's voice. Robert Costanzo provides his voice in video game and television reprisals of the character. 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Walt Disney Pictures is an American movie studio, with off-shoot studios in Japan and other sites in the United States. ... Hercules is the thirty-fifth film in the Disney animated feature canon. ... In Greek mythology, Satyrs (Σάτυροι - Satyri) are mythological half-man and half-goat nature entities that roamed the woods and mountains, and were the companions of Pan and Dionysus. ... Thebes (in modern Greek: Θήβα — Thíva, in ancient Greek and Katharevousa: — Thēbai or Thívai) is a city in Greece, situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain. ... Danny DeVito as Louie in Taxi. ...