#perpetual wounds is such a strong mythological idea already and then you get the heartbreaking social aspects into the deal and ah

[ilions-end]

i didn't really notice before it was pointed out to me, but in the iliad, traumatic injury only has two outcomes: immediate (or near-immediate) death, or a short period of recuperation before the injured person can return to battle apparently no worse for wear (see diomedes, odysseus, menelaus, agamemnon, etc etc). there are no slow lingering deaths or infections or persistent disabilities or amputations. and i suppose that works narratively, because "X kills Y during his aristeia" is a definite triumph while "X injures Y who lingers in a bed for two weeks before succumbing to a secondary infection" is a lot murkier honour-wise. so the warriors just don't experience those things in the world of the iliad.

BUT if you take a step back and consider the epic cycle, the soldier philoctetes sits abandoned on the island of lemnos while the events of the iliad takes place, and he experiences nothing BUT infection and disability because of his permanently festering leg wound. (as someone with a medical education i admit i'm fascinated by the vividness of the descriptions of the odour, pus, swelling and pain)

it's like philoctetes is forced to endure the infection and lingering wound the rest of his army is spared. and then, when they finally rescue him and bring him to troy in the final year of the war, the physician podalirius (who was presumably present a decade back when philoctetes first got sick) completely heals him straight away! i know there are various related prophecies, but it also seems like the location is a crucial factor. i'd like to imagine it's the gods who want to keep the plains of troy so straightforward, full of binaries and no middle ground: a thrown spear can either hit or don't hit, an injured warrior can either die or return in a few days.