Philoctetes

Sophocles (497 BCE - 406 BCE)

Sophocles' play recounts an episode from the Trojan War, in which the wily Odysseus and Achilles' son Neoptolemus travel to a remote island to persuade Philoctetes to come with them to Troy. A prophet has foreseen that the Greeks will need Philoctetes and his bow (given to him by Heracles before his death) in order to defeat the Trojans. The problem is that years before Odysseus had engineered Philoctetes' abandonment on the island, due to a festering, stinking wound he had received from a snakebite. Will Philoctetes forgive and forget, or will he take his revenge? (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)

Cast
Odysseus: Bruce Pirie
Neoptolemus: mb
Chorus: Delmar H. Dolbier
Philoctetes: Algy Pug
Messenger: Martin Geeson
Heracles/Narrator: Elizabeth Klett

Audio editing: Elizabeth Klett

Genre(s): Classics (Greek & Latin Antiquity), Tragedy

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 01 Part 1 Group 00:39:32
Play 02 Part 2 Group 00:46:18