Sophocles: PhiloctetesSophocles' Philoctetes is one of the most widely read Greek tragedies today but is a complex and challenging play to interpret. Its representation of Philoctetes as a sufferer of physical and emotional pain gives it remarkable power and intensity. It juxtaposes Homeric and fifth-century institutions and values, explores honor, power and expediency as principles of personal and political life, and represents contrasts and conflicts between innocence and experience, ends and means, and the needs and demands of the individual and those of society. This edition with commentary makes the play accessible to students, teachers, and other readers of Greek literature at all levels. The introduction discusses the main problems of interpretation and gives an account of its reception from antiquity to the present day. |
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Common terms and phrases
Achilles aeolic Aesch Aischylos anapaests antistrophe Âpwv Athena Athenian Atreidai Attic audience caesura cave Chorus clause contrast cr»nwi crasis denote eisodos emotional emphatic enjambment epic Euripides evil expresses gein gods Helenos Herakles Homeric iambic trimeter implies Introd kaª kakän knon Lemnos llì LSJ s.v. män means metre metrical moÓ Moorhouse Neoptolemos nÓn noun Odysseus oÉd oÉk oÎte omoi oÔn pain päv Phil Phil.’s Philoktetes play position pote pr¼v prªn Pucci qeän refers rhetorical sense Smyth soª Soph Sophoklean Sophokles speaks speech sqai stichomythia strophe strophe and antistrophe subj suffering suggests syllable synizesis t¼n täi tän taÓt taÓta to±v toÆv toÓ toÓde toÓt toÓto tragedy Troy verb words Zeus