Philoctetes (Sophocles play)

Philoctetes
Philoctetes by Jean-Germain Drouais
Written bySophocles
ChorusGreek Sailors
CharactersOdysseus
Neoptolemus
Philoctetes
a trader
Heracles
Date premiered409 BC
Place premieredAthens
Original languageAncient Greek
GenreTragedy
SettingBefore a cave at Lemnos

Philoctetes (Ancient Greek: Φιλοκτήτης, Philoktētēs; English pronunciation: /ˌfɪləkˈttz/, stressed on the third syllable, -tet-[1]) is a play by Sophocles (Aeschylus and Euripides also each wrote a Philoctetes but theirs have not survived). The play was written during the Peloponnesian War. It is one of the seven extant tragedies by Sophocles. It was first performed at the City Dionysia in 409 BC, where it won first prize. The story takes place during the Trojan War (after the majority of the events of the Iliad, but before the Trojan Horse). It describes the attempt by Neoptolemus and Odysseus to bring the disabled Philoctetes, the master archer, back to Troy from the island of Lemnos.

  1. ^ John C. Wells, Longman pronunciation dictionary, 3rd edition (2008), entry Philoctetes.