The altar stood in a sacred precinct under the open sky. When Philoctetes approached he was bitten in the foot by a serpent. The wound did not heal, and Philoctetes' cries of pain made it impossible for the Greeks to perform the religious rites, during which there should not be any ill-omened sounds. The odor of his wound was also offensive. So they took Philoctetes to the neighbouring coast of Lemnos, put him ashore, and sailed for Troy.
Ten years elapsed. Philoctetes was still languishing in Lemnos. His former comrades could not capture Troy; Achilles and Ajax were dead. So they turned to Calchas, who replied that they must learn the fate of Troy from other lips than his. They ought to consult Helenus, a son of Priam who was a seer. Helenus was made prisoner by a stratagem of Odysseus, and then he declared that two things must happen before the Greeks would take Troy. First, Philoctetes must be brought back from Lemnos, to shoot against Troy the arrows of Heracles. Second, Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, must come from the island of Scyros and receive his due heritage, the armor the god Hephaestos had fashioned for Achilles. Phoenix and Odyssseus then went to Scyros and brought the young Neoptolemus to Troy, where his father's armor was given to him. Then he set out with Odysseus for Lemnos.
86-122: Neoptolemus questions the necessity for trickery and lying. But he is reconciled to Odysseus' plan by the revelation that he cannot capture Troy without the bow of Philoctetes, and by the prospect of an enduring reputation.
136ff: Parodos
146-147: "Terrible wanderer": Philoctetes is described almost as if he were a wild animal.
201: Silence, as during the performance of mystery rituals.
242ff: Lycomedes was Neoptolemus's grandfather on his mother's side. It was he who was persuaded by Phoenix and Odysseus (343ff) to let the young man go to Troy. Neoptolemus had been born on Scyros, where his father Achilles had been placed by his mother Thetis, so he would escape his fated end ("either go to Troy and die with glory, or live a long life and be inglorious"). Achilles was disguised as a girl, but Odysseus tricked him into revealing his actual gender when he brought weapons and Achilles leaped eagerly to examine them. Later Achilles fell in love with Deidamia, the daughter of Lycodemus; Neoptolemus was the son of these two.
261-263: In this version Philoctetes kindled the pyre on Oeta when Heracles' life came to an end, and Heracles gave him the bow as a reward. This was a bow that Apollo had given Heracles.
264: The "Cephallenians" inhabited Ithaca and other islands, as well as part of the mainland. Odysseus was said to have led them into battle at Troy.
274: "A handful of food" would avoid the sacrilege of starving someone to death.
391-402: A brief and excited ode by the sailors who are trying to back up Neoptolemus. At 391 Cybele (a Phrygian goddess, whose worship extended to Greece) is called upon in her threefold role as Mountain Mother, Earth and Rhea (the mother of Zeus).
415: Tydeus' son is Diomedes, who shared important exploits with Odysseus. He was crafty too. Sisyphus was the archetype of cunning; Odysseus is often referred to as his "son." Laertes is the father of Odysseus in the Odyssey. In this version he paid his bride-price for Anticleia who was already pregnant with Odysseus by Sisyphus.
422: Nestor, of Pylos, was very old and very wise; he was respected as a counselor.
442-444: Thersites ("the bold one") appears in the Iliad as a common man "who does not know his place" as the British used to say about those of a lower "class." He was "immoderate in speech" and "a ranting scoundrel."
489: All these are places near Euboea.
529: Philoctetes becomes prematurely jubilant.
542-567: The "Trader" arrives to report (a) that Phoenix and Theseus' sons have left Troy in pursuit of Neoptolemus and (b)that Odysseus and Diomedes are about to leave to bring back Philoctetes. The connection with Theseus can be explained as follows. Theseus, the great Athenian hero, was slain treacherously by Lycomedes on Scyros. The sons of Theseus, Demophoon and Acamas, are represented as the foes of Neoptolemus. They were said by the Athenians to have been hiding with the others inside the wooden horse, although neither the Iliad nor the Odyssey mentions them.
628-675: Philoctetes, convinced now that Odysseus will be coming, is in a hurry to be off (as he thinks) home. Neoptolemus, after mentioning an adverse wind, agrees, tries deviously to gain the bow ans resumes with Philoctetes that last visit to the cave which the messenger's advent halted.
676ff: The chorus sings a stasimon . It begins with a mythological parallel for the tragic sufferer. Ixion was punished, for trying to rape Hera, by being bound to an ever-turning wheel.
722: The chorus wishes that Philoctetes may go home.
727: Heracles is referred to here as a warrior in armor rather than an archer, as elsewhere in the play, because he had captured Oechalia in Euboea "with his spear" and not his bow. Euboea is near Oeta.
730 Second episode: Philoctetes and Neoptolemus reenter.
800-801: "Lemnian fire": Do for me what I did (as a friend) for Heracles. Lemnos is the place where Hephaistos, god of fire, landed when thrown out of heaven by Zeus.
827-832: This brief song has the structure and language of a lullaby.
865-935: Third episode.
895: It has been pointed out that Neoptolemus' exclamations in his mental pain are parallel to those of Philoctetes in his physical pain.
936ff: Note that Philoctetes calls upon Lemnos and its wild life to witness Neoptolemus' deception. He pictures himself dying of starvation, and being a source of food for the beasts of the wild.
1054-1056: He had always known that possession of the bow was not enough, that Philoctetes too must go to Troy. But he now sees that he must go willingly.
1081-1216: Philoctetes addresses the cave that soon will see his death. He asks for help only in hastening his death and journeying "home" to Hades, to his father.
1402: The pair set out for the third time towards the ship.
1409-1471: Heracles appears as the "god from the machine."