18/09/2026
🐍 Φιλοκτήτης
The Solitude of Lemnos
Ancient Greek online course, 30 September- 28 October, 2026
For inscrutable reasons, the gods tend to persecute valiant men, whilst bestowing prosperity upon the petty and the wicked: this is the central theme of Philoctetes, the play with which Sophocles won the Great Dionysia in 409 BC. The tragedy opens on the coast of Lemnos, a landscape of rugged rocks. In the background stands a cave with two entrances, through which ‘the breeze blows in summer, bringing sweet sleep’, and beside it ‘the gushing of a spring’ can be heard. This is the place where Philoctetes, king of Malis, was banished by the Achaeans following a snake bite which, having festered into an incurable and foul-smelling wound, caused him to let out screams unbearable to anyone near him.
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🐍 Φιλοκτήτης
Περὶ τῆς κατὰ Λῆμνον ἐρημίας
ἀπὸ τῆς λ᾽τοῦ Σεπτεμβρίου εἰς τῆν κη᾽τοῦ Ὀκτωβρίου ,βκϛ´
ὑβριστικοὶ μὲν οἱ θεοὶ εἰς τοὺς ἀγαθοὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων, οὐδεμίας δὲ εὐτυχίας ἄφθονοι εἰς τοὺς πονηρούς· ἡ δὲ τούτων αἰτία ἄδηλος. οὕτω ἀφορίσειεν ἄν τις τὴν διάνοιαν τὴν τῷ Φιλοκήτῃ ὑποκειμένην, ὃν Σοφοκλῆς ἐν τῷ λγ᾽ ἔτει τῶν Πελοποννησιακῶν διδάξας τὰ πρωτεῖα ἀπηνέγκατο. ἡ μὲν σκηνὴ ἐστιν ἐν Λήμνῳ, ἐν ἀκτῇ ἀποτόμῳ καὶ τραχείᾳ· ἐν τοῖς δ´ὄπισθεν πάρεστιν ὁρᾶν δίστομον πέτραν· “ἐν θέρει δ᾽ὕπνον”, φησὶν ὁ Σοφοκλῆς “δι᾽ἀμφιτρῆτος αὐλίου πέμπει πνοή”· ὀλίγῳ δὲ κατωτέρω “ἴδοις ποτὸν κρηναῖον, εἴπερ ἐστὶ σῶν”. εἰς ταύτην τὴν ἤρεμον ἀπήγαγόν ποτε οἱ Ἀχαιοὶ Φιλοκτήτην τὸν τῶν Μαλιέων βασιλέα, ὃς ἀνίατον τραῦμα ὑπ᾽ὄφεως λαβὼν οὐκ ἐπαύετο τοὺς πέλας βοαῖς καὶ στεναγμοῖς λυπῶν.
