Philoctetes
Philoctetes inherited Heracles' bow and was essential to Troy's fall, yet the Greeks abandoned him for ten years because of a festering wound.
The Legend of Philoctetes
Heir to the bow of Heracles, Philoctetes was bitten by a serpent sacred to Apollo on the island of Chryse while the Greek fleet sailed toward Troy. The wound festered and stank so horribly that Odysseus and the Greek chieftains abandoned him on Lemnos. For ten years he survived alone, nursing his rage. Then a prophecy revealed that Troy could not fall without Heracles' bow. Odysseus and Diomedes (or Neoptolemus) returned to fetch him. Asclepius's sons healed the wound at Troy. Philoctetes shot Paris with the poisoned arrows. His tale is one of betrayal, endurance, and the irony Athena and Zeus wove into the war.
Parents
Poeas
Symbols
Fun Fact
Edmund Wilson named his famous essay on the artist's wound after this hero.
Explore Further
Philoctetes and the Bow
🗡 heroarchery, suffering
The hero who possessed Heracles' bow without which Troy could not fall, abandoned on Lemnos for ten years due to his festering wound.
Telephus
🗡 herofate
Son of Heracles and Auge, king of Mysia, who was wounded by Achilles and could only be healed by the same spear.
Odysseus
🗡 heroKing of Ithaca, hero of the Trojan War
The cleverest of the Greek heroes, whose ten-year journey home from Troy is one of the greatest stories ever told. Odysseus's cunning was his greatest weapon.
Iphitus
🗡 heroNone recorded
Son of Eurytus who gave Odysseus the great bow and was later murdered by Heracles
Idomeneus
🗡 heroKing of Crete at Troy
Idomeneus was the king of Crete who led eighty ships to Troy and was among the fiercest fighters — his story continued in a vow that cost him his son.
Telegonus
🗡 herotragedy
Son of Odysseus and Circe who unknowingly killed his own father, fulfilling a prophecy that death would come to Odysseus from the sea.
Diomedes
🗡 heroKing of Argos who wounded gods
Diomedes was the only mortal in the Iliad to wound two Olympian gods in a single day.
Perseus
🗡 heroHero who slew Medusa
The son of Zeus and Danae who beheaded Medusa, rescued Andromeda, and founded the Perseid dynasty of Mycenae.
Eurytion
🗡 heroHunting, archery
Argonaut and skilled hunter who later participated in the Calydonian Boar Hunt
Jason
🗡 heroLeader of the Argonauts
The hero who assembled the Argonauts and sailed to Colchis to retrieve the Golden Fleece, aided by Medea's sorcery.
Jason
🗡 heroLeader of the Argonauts, seeker of the Golden Fleece
The hero who assembled the Argonauts and sailed to Colchis in quest of the Golden Fleece. Jason's story is one of ambition, adventure, and tragic betrayal.
Imbrios
🗡 heroMarriage, Trojan alliance
Son-in-law of Priam from the island of Imbros who fought and died defending Troy