Philoktetes: A New Translation

Philoktetes - with a festering, god-given wound in his foot - has been abandoned on the desolate island of Lemnos by the Greeks under Odysseus. They couldn't stand the stench, nor his screams of pain. That was ten years ago. Since then, they've learned they can't take Troy without Philoktetes and the bow given to him by Herakles--nore without Neoptolemos, son of the dead Achilles. Yet Philoktetes would rather kill Osysseus than return to Troy. It's up to Neoptolemos, inveigled by Odysseus, to trick Philoktetes into returning. Odysseus, an opportunistic character representing the Greek army, will use any means necessary to carry out his mission. Philoktetes and Neoptolemos, however, are constantly at sea: shifting and re-shifting amidst mixed feelings, deceptions, suspicions, and qualms as they struggle with themselves and their obscurely evolving relationship.