Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Philoctetes, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Disability and Discrimination
Deception, Ethics, and War
Suffering and Isolation
Decisions, Obligation, and the Greater Good
Summary
Analysis
The chorus continues to lament Philoctetes’s plight. He has never hurt a soul and has always lived in peace with his fellow Greeks, yet he has been destined to live this horrible existence on Lemnos, alone with no one to care for him. Now, the chorus says, Philoctetes has met Neoptolemus, the son of the greatest Greek hero, Achilles, and Philoctetes will soon sail away from Lemnos back to his father, Poeas, on the island Mális.
This brief choral song again underscores the injustice of the discrimination against Philoctetes. He has literally done nothing to deserve his poor treatment—he was an innocent victim when he was bitten by the snake, and until then he was a dedicated and respected member of the Greek army. Sophocles implies that Philoctetes deserves better, as do others who face senseless discrimination.
Themes
