Philoctetes

by

Sophocles

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Philoctetes makes teaching easy.

Philoctetes’s Wound 

At the center of Philoctetes is the wound Philoctetes suffers due to a snake bite on the island Chryse, and it is symbolic of Philoctetes’s pain and isolation. Additionally, Philoctetes’s wound symbolizes the deep hate…

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Philoctetes’s Bow and Arrows

Philoctetes’s bow and arrows drive most of the plot of Sophocles’s Philoctetes, and they represent Philoctetes’s power, or “prowess,” as Heracles puts it; however, Philoctetes’s bow and arrows also represent his obligation to…

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