Philoctetes is a master archer who, during the Trojan War, is bitten by a snake and cursed with a foul-smelling, incurable wound. Odysseus abandons him on the island of Lemnos with a bow given to him by Heracles as his only companion.

Ten years later, a prophecy reveals to the Greeks that Philoctetes and his legendary bow will be necessary to win the Trojan War. This forces Odysseus and Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, to embark on a quest to retrieve him from his exile on Lemnos.

Both Aeschylus and Euripides also wrote plays entitled Philoctetes , but only Sophocles’ version survives. It was first performed in 409 BC, and its performance won first prize.