Name: Philoctetes
ISBN: 9781101873687

Sophocles

Bryan Doerries

The Trojan War has been raging for nine long years. Desperate for victory and a return home, the Greeks have been told by a seer that there is only one way to defeat Troy: the great archer Philoctetes and his magical bow must be returned from exile. The Greek army had abandoned Philoctetes years earlier on the remote island of Lemnos after he was bitten by a snake and afflicted by a mysterious illness on the way to Troy. Now, it falls to Odysseus and the young officer Neoptolemus to travel back to Lemnos and trick Philoctetes into joining the battle against the Trojans. But when Neoptolemus confronts his quarry, he finds his task more difficult than anticipated. Sophocles Sophocles' play is a timeless story of deception, loyalty and betrayal. This vital and accessible new translation by Brian Doeries brings it powerfully to life. www.outsidethewirellc.com www.facebook.com/theaterofwar

A New Translation

Philoctetes

Diskin Clay

Carl Phillips

Based on the conviction that only translators who write poetry themselves can properly re-create the celebrated and timeless tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the Greek Tragedy in New Translations series offers new translations that go beyond the literal meaning of the Greek in order to evoke the poetry of the originals. Under the general editorship of Peter Burian and Alan Shapiro, each volume includes a critical introduction, commentary on the text, full stage directions, and a glossary of the mythical and geographical references in the play. En route to fight the Trojan War, the Greek army has abandoned Philoctetes, after the smell of his festering wound, mysteriously received from a snakebite at a shrine on a small island off Lemnos, makes it unbearable to keep him on ship. Ten years later, an oracle makes it clear that the war cannot be won without the assistance of Philoctetes and his famous bow, inherited from Hercules himself. Philoctetes focuses on the attempt of Neoptolemus and the hero Odysseus to persuade the bowman to sail with them to Troy. First, though, they must assuage his bitterness over having been abandoned, and then win his trust. But how should they do this--through trickery, or with the truth? To what extent do the ends justify the means? To what degree should personal integrity be compromised for the sake of public duty? These are among the questions that Sophocles puts forward in this, one of his most morally complex and penetrating plays.

Jeff Brown 

My review will mostly be why I read this story.

There is a TV show that is based in a hospital. In that hospital is a psychiatrist who holds a group therapy meeting for soldiers that have returned from war. The main characters are an older man that is a tough commander, who talks down to a young female soldier, and a recent addition to the group is a soldier that is suffering from PTSD so bad that he can't speak about it. At all. He wants to run away from the group.

The doctor decides that the perfect remedy is this story, about a Greek soldier that is left on an island after sustaining a disgusting foot injury. This soldier finally gets to return home 10 years later. In the show, the PTSD soldier couldn't do the reading, but a doctor, who was in the army in India, read for him. The story affected the doctor as much as the therapy group. It was a very powerful episode.

So I thought I would read the entire story, but I didn't think about the jillion different translations out there. I found a modern translation to read and it kind of fell flat. Finally came across the episode again so I could compare the reading on the show to what I read -- and it apparently was another translation (or, more likely, the writers rewrote it to condense it). 

It is an interesting story, but it didn't move me like the acting did. So I gave it a neutral grade.

Philoctetes A New Translation

Reviews

Highlights