Philoctetes

Dr. Green

Disgust cycle• Agreeable to disgust– Smell

• identification as disgusting• Avoid the area

– Taste and texture• avoid contact• danger of contact

– Vomiting• expulsion• segregation and isolation

– Immune system attacks• destruction

Main Characters

• Who are the main characters?

Neoptolemus

Odysseus

Achilles

Achilles

Heracles

Characters

• What do they represent?

Meaning• Odysseus– wily intelligence

• Achilles– ultimate warrior

• Neoptolemus– honor vs loyality to the cause

• Heracles– son of Zeus and a mortal woman named Alcmene– driven mad by the goddess Hera, so ,in a frenzy, he

kills his own children.

Prologue

• What is the setting?• How is in the Prologue?• What is the situation?

Setting

• Desolate place where Philoctetes was abandoned.

Philoctetes

• Why was Philoctetes abandoned?• Where does he live?• How does he support himself?

Philoctetes

• Bitten by viper• Sign of disgust– Terrible odor• foul stench of foot• foul-smelling

– Oozing blood– Crippled– Terrible cries

Characters

• Odysseus• Neoptolemus

Conflict

• Why are Odysseus and Neoptolemus on the island?

• What are the three possible methods for solving this problem?

Why there?

• Need Philoctetes to take Troy• What was the Trojan War?

Three Methods

• Persuasion• Force– His bow makes him invincible

• Deception

Methods

• Which option does Odysseus think they should use?

Odysseus

• take by ruse—”tongue is master”

Method

• What method does Neoptolemus want to use?

Method

• Wants to use force

Odysseus

• What does Odysseus tell Neoptolemus to say?

Odysseus

• He hates the Greeks• He has abandoned the war

Conclusion

• Who is in the Conclusion?

Conclusion

• Neoptolemus• Odysseus• Philoctetes• Heracles

Conclusion

• Neo return to undo his mistake of lying and give the bow back

• Odysseus threatens Neoptolemus, but hides• Neoptolemus calls out Philoctetes– Had taken his means of subsistence

• As hands it to Philoctetes, Odysseus appears

Conclusion

• Neoptolemus– “you have become savage”– “you distrust all”– come to Troy

• Philoctetes– Prevented by “troubled treatment” he forsees– Wants to be taken home, as promised

• Neoptolemus– agrees to take home

Heracles

• Tells Philoctetes to– go to Troy, where– He shall be healed – He kill Paris– He receives honors--spoils given to him– He works with Neoptolemus to take Troy– Twin lions– Show reverence to gods

Episodes

• Episode 1– Philoctetes condition• lonely, a castaway, so friendless and so miserable• eats doves killed by bow

– Neoptolemus• Has been dishonored by the Greeks

Episodes

• Episode 2– Philoctetes• trusts Neoptolemus because they have the same

enemy• “all human destiny is full of the fear and the danger

that prosperity may be followed by its opposite. He who stands clear of trouble must beware of dangers, [505] and when a man lives at ease, then it is that he must look most closely to his livelihood, lest it secretly suffer ruin.”

Episodes

• Episode 3– Neoptolemus agrees to take Philoctetes home– Merchant• Diomedes and forceful Odysseus are sailing for Phil• Odysseus capture Helenus, who prophisized that the

Greeks would not win without Philoctetes– Philoctetes• Odysseus will not persuade, rather listen to viper

– Neoptolemus• Tricks Philoctetes into giving him the bow

Episodes

• Episode 4– Philoctetes in agony• Begs Neoptolemus to cut off his leg

– Neoptolemus takes bow until pain eases– Sleep will come to ease great pain– Philoctetes passes out from the pain

Episodes• Episode 5

– Philoctetes awakens– Neoptolemus

• “All is offense when a man has abandoned his true nature and does what does not suit him.”

• can't bring himself to do it– Philoctetes

• Realizes that betrayed by Neo– Odysseus comes in– Philoctetes

• Would rather kill himself than go to Troy• Wants revenge

– Odysseus• Wants to leave him here, but take his bow

Choral Odes

• Parados– pity--alone, fierce disease– stripped of all life's gifts– no companionship

• Choral 1 and 2– Sympathy

Choral Odes

• Episode 3– Philoctetes has wronged no one– a doom so repugnant as this of Philoctetes. For

though he had wronged no one by force or thievery

– no care, no support no comfort– eat arrowed food, stagnant water not wine– Needs to be rescued and taken home

Choral Odes

• Choral Ode 4– sleep brings relief from pain

• Choral Ode 5– Philoctetes

• can't kill doves to eat any more, will die of starvation• wants a weapon to kill himself to end the pain

– Chorus• you chose to reject the better fate, and to accept the worse.• Experiencing the hate-filled, baneful curse of outcast• He should go to Troy