Essays

Epilepsie in Sofokles' Filoktetes

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Abstract

Philoctetes is not a very well known figure in Greek mythology. Nevertheless, he plays an important part in several mythical stories, such as the death of Hercules and the Trojan war. It is his part in the latter that is of interest in this article. During the crossing to Troy the man is injured by a divine snake which guards the temple of Chryse. His unremitting cries of pain and the stench from the wound cause the Greek leaders to leave Philoctetes behind on the isle of Lemnos. After nine years of unsuccessful war against Troy, however, it is prophesied that only Philoctetes and his mighty bow, together with the son of Achilles, Neoptolemus, can sack the city. This particular part of the Trojan cycle has been the subject of no less than three tragedies. This article focuses on the tragedy as it was written by Sophocles. After an outline of the play and some possible interpretations of Sophocles’ choices, I investigate whether the playwright based his description of Philoctetes’ illness on an actual disease, namely epilepsy, and what the consequences of such a decision could have been. For the sake of completeness, a number of other diagnoses that have been suggested are also put forward.

How to Cite:

Mouvet, K., (2009) “Epilepsie in Sofokles' Filoktetes”, Tetradio 18(1): 7, 165–184. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tetradio.91794