A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

PI-IILOCTETES. PHILOCTETES. 303
name of either of then; and, if the l.Itter felt him- approached too near to the serpent which was
self endangered inl consequence, it may account guarding the temple of the goddess (Soph. Phil.
for his putting himself forward (towards the end 1327; Philostr. in,~aq. 17; Eustath. ad Mnom. p.
probably of 344 or the beginning of the next year) 330; Tzetz. aa Lye. 911), or while he was looking
as the mover of a decree, remonstrating with Philip at the tomb of Troilus in the temple of Apollo
on the seizure of some Athenian ships by one of Thymbraeus, or as he was showing to his comhis admirals. Shortly after this, however, Philo- paslions the altar of Heracles (Philostr. 1. c.; Schol.
crates was capitally impeached by Hyperides ad Soph. Phil. 266), or lastly during a sacrifice
through an eoaeyyyeAta, for his treason, and deemed which Palamedes offered to Apollo Sminthius (Diet.
it expedient to go into voluntary exile before the Cret. ii. 14). Hera, it is said, was the cause of
trial came on. Of his subsequent fortunes we have this misfortune, being enraged at Philoctetes having
no certain information. Demosthenes, in his speech performed the above-mentioned service to Heracles
onil the Crown, speaks of Philocrates as one of those (Hygin. Fab. 102), though some related that the
who assailed him with false accusations after the snake's bite was the consequence of his not having
battle of Chaeroneia in B. c. 338; and from this it returned the love of the nymph Chryse (Tzetz. ad
might be inferred that the traitor had then re- Lye. 911). According to some accounts, moreover,
turned from banishment, but Aeschines mentions the wound in his foot was not inflicted by a serpent,
him as still an exile in B. C. 3.,0 (c. Cles. p. 65), but by his own poisoned arrows (Serv. ad Aenz. iii.
and we may therefore believe, with Mr. Newman, 402). The wound is said to have become ulcerated,
that Philocrates was still dangerous to Demosthenes and to have produced such an intolerable smell,
in 338 by his voice or pen, "with which he could and such intolerable pains, that the moanings of the
pretend to reveal scandalous secrets, owing to his hero alarmed his companions. The consequence
former intimacy with him." (Heges. de Hal. was, that on the advice of Odysseus, and by the
pp. 82, 83; Dem. de Cor. pp. 2`30, 232, 250, 310, command of the Atreidae, he was exposed and left
de Fals. Leg. pp. 343, 345, 348, 355, 356, 371, 375, alone on the solitary coast of Lemnos (Ov. Mlet.
377, 386, 394, 395, 405, 434, 440, c. Aristog. xiii. 315; Hygin. Fab. 102). According to some
pp. 783, 784; Argum. ad Dems. de Pac. p. 56; he was there left behind, because the priests of
Aesch. de F(als. Leg. pp. 2.9, 30, 35, 36; Plut. de Hephaestus in Lemnos knew how to heal the
Garr. 15; comp. Newmain in the Classiccdllluseum, wound (Eustath. acd Ilon. p. 330), and Pylius, a
vol. i. pp. 151, 152.) son of Hephaestus, is said to have actually cured
4. A Rhodian, was one of the ambassadors sent him (Ptolem. Hleph. 6), while, according to others,
from Rhodes in B. c. ]67, after the war with Per- he was believed to have died of the wound (comp.
seus, to avert the anger of the Romans,-an object Paus. i. 22. ~ 6). According to the common
which they had much difficulty in effecting. (Polyb. tradition, the sufferer remained in Lemnnos during
xxx. 4, 5; Liv. xlv. 20-25.) [E.. E.] the whole period of the Trojan war, until in the
PHILOCTE'TES (lhAOKCT'rS)), a son of Poeas tenth year Odysseus and Diomedes came to him as
(whence he is called Poeantiades, Ov. MIet. xiii. ambassadors, to inform him that an oracle had de313) and Demonassa, the most celebrated archer clared that without the arrows of Heracles Troy
in the Trojan war (Hom. Od. iii. 190, viii. 219; could not be taken. The tradition which represents
JIygin. Fab. 102). He led the warriors from Me- him as having been cured, adds that while the war
thone, Thaumacia, Meliboea, and Olizon, against against Troy was going on, he, in conjunction with
Troy, in seven ships. But on his voyage thither Euneus, conquered the small islands about the
he was left behind by his men in the island of Trojan coast, and expelled their Carian inhabitants.
Lemnos, because he was ill of a wound which he As a reward for these exploits he received a part of
had received from the bite of a snake, and Medon, Lemnos, which he called Acesa (from daKos'ao, I
the son of Oileus and IRhene, undertook the corn- heal), and at the request of Diomedes and Neoptosiand of his men (Hom. Hi. ii. 71 6, &c.). This is lemus, he then proceeded to Troy to decide the
all that the Homeric poems relate of him, with the victory by his arrows (Philostr. HIer. 5; comp.
addition that he returned home in safety (Od. iii. Hygin. F/b. 102; Q. Slumyrn. ix. 325, 460; Tzetz.
190); but the cyclic and tragic poets have spun ad Lye. 911; Schol. ad Pind. Pyth. i. 100). Acout in various ways this slender groundwvork of the cording to the common story, however, Philoctetes
story of Plliloctetes. He is said to have been the was still suffering when the ambassadors arrived,
d;sciple, friend, and armour-bearer of Heracles but he nevertheless followed their call. After his
(Philostr. Izcag. 17), who instructed him in the arrival before Troy, Apollo sent him into a profound
art of using the bow, and who bequeathed to him sleep, during which Machaon (or Podalirius, or
his bow, with the never-erring poisoned arrows both, or Asclepius himself) cut out the wound,
(Phlilostr. I-er. 5). These presents were a reward washed it with wine, and applied healing herbs to
for his having erected and set fire to the pile on it (Tzetz. ad L?/c. 1. c.; Schol. ad Pind. Pytl. i.
mount Oeta, where Heracles burnt himself (Diod. 109; Propert. ii. 1. 61; Q. Smyrn. x. 180; Soplih.
iv. 38; Hygin. Fab. 36; Ov. Met. ix. 230, &c.). Plil. 133, 1437). Philoctetes was thus cured,
According to others, however, it was Poeas, Mor- and soon after slew Paris, whereupon Troy fell
simus, Hyllus, or Zeus himself who performed that into the hands of the Greeks (Soph. Phil. 1426;
service to Heracles (Apollod. ii. 7. ~ 7; Tzetz. ad Apollod. iii. 12. ~ 6; Tzetz. ad Lye. 64; Hygin.
yce. 50; Soph. Trach. in fin.). Philoctetes also Fab. 112; Conon, Narr. 23). On his return
was one of the suitors of Helen, and, according to from Troy he is said to have been cast upon the
some traditionls, it was this circumstance that obliged coast of Italy, where he settled, and built Petelia
him to take part in the Trolan war (Apollod. iii. and Crimissa. In the latter place he founded a
10. ~ 83). On his journey thither, while staying sanctuary of Apollo Alaeus, to whom he dedicated
in the island of Chryse, he was bitten by a snake. his bow (Strab. vi. p. 254; Tzetz. ad Lye. 911;
This isisfortune happened to him as he was show- Serv. ad Aen. iii. 402). Afterwards a band of
ilng to the Greeks the altar of Athena Chryse, and Rhllodians also came to Italy, and as they became