#sophocles philoctetes

[katerinaaqu]

I am sorry but I am laughing my ass off while reading Sophocles's "Philoctetes" 🤣🤣🤣

Like poor Philoctetes wants to jump off a cliff and kill himself and Odysseus panics like "Seize him! Don't let him do it!" And seeing him struggle even more the cunning bastard played the most marvelous reverse psychology card I have ever seen in a while hahahahaha 😅 😆 he literally goes like:

"Fine, stay in exile if you want. We have what we want of you. I will master your bow or Teucer will and we are all good. You can stay here if you want. Let's go boys"

Like...DUDE 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[eleancrvances]

my uni staged philoctetes and one of the best choices was to have odysseus walk in with a cigarette through the entrance directly beneath the "no smoking" sign

[ilions-end]

first thing to wallop me in sophocles' philoctetes is what neoptolemus chooses to say to philoctetes after odysseus has instructed him to lie and say odysseus is their common enemy

ESPECIALLY because odysseus was like "don't worry, you can talk WHATEVER shit you want about me to win his trust, it's all fair game" and neoptolemus is well aware odysseus is hidden nearby and can overhear the conversation

he goes straight into how unfair it was that achillles' weapons went to odysseus!

OUGH. OUGH!! after ajax, sophocles?? and IS neoptolemus lying about his resentment and being a good little soldier, or isn't he? BAM the dramatic tension straight out the gate

[clementinestra]

TROY'S LAST NIGHTMARE

coming out as a neoptolemus truther rip hate this guy holding him in my arms and also setting him on fire. but like lovingly.

something genuinely makes me crazy about how sophocles wrote him in philoctetes vs how he turns out in the trojan war/aeneid. what made him Like That! ive been trying to crack him open like a walnut for the last two years give or take and i think im. getting somewhere? part of a bigger project i have in mind with this guy (said with the distinct intention of putting him through a few cycles in the washer-dryer and seeing what happens).

for now though here's a first pass at some armor and creepy blue eyes. someone get him fucking brown contacts or something please god

[classicsstudentsunion]

JORGE!!!! ALLUDE TO THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE HORRORS OF THE TROJAN WAR MORE OFTEN AND MY LIFE!!! IS YOURS!!!!!!!!

[dr-dendritic-trees]

So I have just read Philoctetes...

And I think in some way Telemachus and Neoptolemus have the same basic adolescence and its just entirely a bunch of adults shouting at them "why aren't you your father!" while they sit there like "I never even met that guy! Cut me some slack!"

It makes me sad.

[generouskittentidalwave]

What happened with Philoctetes being abandoned was used as a plot device for his character and future events and that's why I never use it to judge Odysseus's character. There, I said it.

The reason I say this? Is because back then the greeks came to an agreement that Philoctetes was left on the island of Lemnos after getting a snake bite, and that Odysseus convinced them to leave him behind.

However, despite all the research, I can never find exactly why Odysseus decided to leave him behind. Some imply that he didn't like all the cries from Philoctetes festering wound and left him behind, in others it's implied that he was forced to leave him behind by the others, others imply that it was a plan in order to find a way to get him back eventually, others imply that Odysseus saw him as a lost cause, that he would weigh them down, etc.. It seems like no one could agree on one thing or a reason why, just that it happened and that was basically it. They weren't really focused on giving Odysseus an in depth reasoning, just that he decided to leave Lemnos behind and that story would be a suprise tool that would help them later.

We may never know Odysseus's true thought process or reasonings as to why, as it is all left to be implied and seeing as there are many versions of Odysseus throughout both greek and modern history combined with the fact that there wasn't a universally agreed upon reasoning for it, I never use it to judge Odysseus's character as it feels impossible to do so.

For me personally, if I had to take an educated guess on his thought process seeing as we don't really know what it was, Odysseus doesn't seem like the kind of guy to just go- "hah, rotting foot? Must be a skill issue lmao" before then just dipping but I don't think he would just blindly be like "Nuuuh my friendo, my bestie has an ouchy we can't leave him behind like this!" Either. Odysseus's is a very complicated man, but was neither saint nor monster either, rather being the inbetween, and that was shown a lot in stories. So I wholeheartedly feel like it probably was the same situation with what happened with the other situations like Iphigenia, Troilus, Polyxena, etc.. where the man either offhandely makes the suggestion or does the hard decisions himself for reasons either known or unknown.

That's atleast my thoughts on it, I know everyone has there own thoughts on it as well ^^ and I could be wrong but please don't beat me over the head if I am ^^", that's just what I think about it all

[catilinas]

legxorcism

[majestativa]

And Echo, who can Be seen far off, her Mouth never closed, sends Back to his sharp cries Her only answer.

— Sophocles, Selected Poems: Odes and Fragments, on Philoctetes, transl by Reginald Gibbons, (2008)

[odysseusisadick]

AND the fact that in philoctetes (if u know it its from sophocles and its GREAT) odysseus just went like "we have to lie to him" and neoptolemus just asked "are you sure" and odysseus instantly was "yes definitely anyways I'm letting u alone now but i will wait literally one minute and then send someone to check on you xx" mister could not wait

[girlcavalcanti]

people will have the nerve to call literary analysis masturbatory and not have the balls to say that it's a blast of a wank out loud

[ilions-end]

i'm still reeling at just how cold and efficient and disdainful odysseus is in sophocles' philoctetes, even as he's prepared to abandon philoctetes on that island AGAIN.

LOOK at him summarizing himself right here within one monologue:

ODYSSEUS: I’m the kind of man who adapts himself to each occasion. [...] By nature I’m a man who needs to win in everything—however, not with you. So now I’ll happily defer to you. [...] Let him remain here. We have Teucer with us, a skilled archer. So am I, and I believe it’s possible for me to use this bow no worse than you— my hand can aim it just as well as yours. So why do we need you? Enjoy yourself strolling here on Lemnos. We’ll be on our way.

he literally doesn't mind being the villain. he just wants that bow, he just wants to fulfill that damn prophecy and win the war.

[zikzwz]

[portraitofapo3t]

real friends will stop walking and wait for u while u tie ur shoe or even if u have to tend to ur rotting foot

[finelythreadedsky]

idk if it's what kae tempest was thinking but the chorus of philoctetes absolutely should be a chorus of inhabitants of the island and all women-- because it's lemnos, the island where the women famously killed the entire male population a couple of generations before the trojan war. what does it mean that philoctetes is abandoned there, on that island?

[dijeh]

Philoctetes, Sophocles

trans. Ian Johnston