The soldier 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-nor without Neoptolemos, son of the dead hero Achilles. Yet Philoktetes would rather kill Osysseus than return to Troy. It’s up to Neoptolemos, persuaded by the crafty 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.

Fate, free will, and the sacredness of the social bond are all challenged and re-assessed in this tale torn from the midst of the Trojan War. Robert Bagg’s phenomenal translation of Sophocles’ classic Philoktetes achieves an accurate but idiomatic rendering of the Greek original, suited for reading, teaching, or performing, that is sure to strike a chord with contemporary audiences, this is Sophocles for a new generation.