Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T08:29:58.453Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Neoptolemus grows up? ‘Moral development' and the interpretation of Sophocles’ Philoctetes*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2013

Laurel Fulkerson
Laurel Fulkerson
Affiliation:
The Florida State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Sophocles' Philoctetes, first performed in 409 BCE, is a complex play, engaging with a number of issues that have guaranteed it a great deal of attention through the ages. Among other things, from what we know about the Aeschylean and Euripidean versions, Sophocles offers a far more dynamic work than either of the other two playwrights, involving many plot twists, false resolutions, and, all-but uniquely, a character who seems to grow up in the course of the play. Although Philoctetes is generally considered the key figure of the play, as it revolves around his willingness to use his bow in the service of his enemies, Neoptolemus too is of great interest to many (modern) readers, as it is in him that we see the clearest case in extant tragedy of a decision rethought on moral grounds; Neoptolemus' struggle may well render him one of the most compelling characters in Greek tragedy (Reinhardt (1979) 166; cf. Gill (1996) 1–18).

Type
Research Article
Information
The Cambridge Classical Journal , Volume 52 , 2006 , pp. 49 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s). Published online by Cambridge University Press 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

WORKS CITED

Adams, S. M. (1957) Sophocles the playwright, Phoenix suppl. 3, Toronto.Google Scholar
Alt, K. (1961) ‘Schicksal und ΦΥΣΙΣ im Philoktet des Sophokles’, Hermes 89, 141–74.Google Scholar
Avery, H. C. (1965) ‘Heracles, Philoctetes, Neoptolemus’, Hermes 93, 279–97.Google Scholar
Blundell, M. W. (1988) ‘The phusis of Neoptolemus in Sophocles' Philoctetes’, G&R 35, 137–48.Google Scholar
Blundell, M. W. (1991) Helping friends and harming enemies: a study in Sophocles and Greek ethics, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Bowie, A.M. (1997) ‘Tragic filters for history: euripides' Supplices and Sophocles' Philoctetes’, in Pelling, C. (ed.) Greek tragedy and the historian, Oxford, 39–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buxton, R. G. A. (1982) Persuasion in Greek tragedy: a study of Peitho, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Calder, W. (1971) ‘Sophoclean Apologia: Philoctetes’, GRBS 12, 153–74.Google Scholar
Cox, M. ed. (1999) Remorse and reparation, Forensic Focus 7, London.Google Scholar
Craik, E. M. (1979) ‘Philoktetes: Sophoklean melodrama’, AC 48, 15–29.Google Scholar
de Vito, A. F. (1988) ‘Characterization in Greek Tragedy’, PhD thesis, University of Toronto.Google Scholar
Easterling, P. E. (1978) ‘Philoctetes and Modern Criticism’, ICS 3, 27–39.Google Scholar
Erbse, H. (1966) ‘Neoptolemus und Philoktet bei Sophokles’, Hermes 94, 177–201.Google Scholar
Falkner, T. M. (1998) ‘Containing tragedy: rhetoric and self-representation in Sophocles' Philoctetes’, CA 17, 25–58.Google Scholar
Fuqua, C. (1976) ‘Studies in the use of myth in Sophocles' ‘Philoctetes’ and the ‘Orestes’ of Euripides’. Traditio 32, 29–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galinsky, G. K. (1972) The Herakles theme: adaptations of the hero in literature from Homer to the twentieth century, Totowa NJ.Google Scholar
Garton, C. (1957) ‘Characterisation in Greek tragedy’, JHS 77, 247–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gellie, G. H. (1972) Sophocles: a reading, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Gibert, J. (1995) Change of mind in Greek tragedy, Hypomnemata 108, Göttingen.Google Scholar
Gill, C. (1983) ‘The question of character-development: Plutarch and Tacitus’, CQ 33, 469–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gill, C. (1996) Personality in Greek epic, tragedy, and philosophy: the self in dialogue, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gould, J. (1978) ‘Dramatic character and ‘human intelligibility’ in Greek tragedy’, PCPS 204, 43–67.Google Scholar
Halliwell, S. (1990) ‘Traditional Greek conceptions of character’, in Pelling 1990, 32–59.Google Scholar
Harré, R. ed. (1986) The social construction of emotions, Oxford.Google Scholar
Heath, M. (1999) ‘Sophocles' Philoctetes: a problem play?’, in Griffin, J., ed. Sophocles revisited: essays presented to Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Oxford, 137–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inoue, E. (1979) ‘Sight, sound, and rhetoric: Philoctetes 29ff.’ AJP 100, 217–27.Google Scholar
Jebb, R. C. (1890) Sophocles: The plays and fragments, Part 4 Philoctetes, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Kamerbeek, J. C. (1980) The Plays of Sophocles, Part 6 Philoctetes, Gröningen.Google Scholar
Kieffer, J. S. (1942) ‘Philoctetes and arete’, CP 37, 38–50.Google Scholar
Kittmer, J. (1995) ‘Sophoclean Sophistics: a reading of Philoktetes’, MD 34, 9–35.Google Scholar
Kitto, H.D.F. (1954) Greek Tragedy, New York.Google Scholar
Knox, B. M. W. (1964) The heroic temper: studies in Sophoclean tragedy, Sather Classical Lectures, volume 35, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Knox, B. M. W. (1979) ‘Second thoughts in Greek tragedy’, in Word and action: essays on the ancient theater, Baltimore, 231–49.Google Scholar
Konstan, D. (2001) Pity transformed, London.Google Scholar
Kovacs, P. D. (1980) The Andromache of Euripides, American Classical Studies 6, Ann Arbor, MI.Google Scholar
Lada, I. (1993) ‘“Empathic understanding': emotion and cognition in classical dramatic audience-response’, PCPS 39: 94–140.Google Scholar
Lada-Richards, I. (1998) ‘Staging the ephebeia: theatrical role-playing and ritual transition in Sophocles Philoctetes’, Ramus 27, 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Letters, F. J. H. (1953) The life and work of Sophocles, London and NY.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, M. C. (1976–1977) ‘Consequences and character in Sophocles' Philoctetes’, Philosophy & Literature 1, 25–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pelling, C. (ed.) (1990), Characterization and Individuality in Greek Literature, Oxford.Google Scholar
Pepe, G. M. (1966) ‘Studies in Peitho’, PhD thesis, Princeton University.Google Scholar
Podlecki, A. J. (1966) ‘The power of the word in Sophocles' Philoctetes’, GRBS 7, 233–50.Google Scholar
Poe, J. P. (1974) Heroism and Divine Justice in Sophocles Philoctetes, Mnemosyne classical supplement. Gröningen.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pratt, N. T. (1949) ‘Sophoclean ‘orthodoxy’ in the Philoctetes’, AJP 70, 273–89.Google Scholar
Pucci, P. et al. (2003), Sofocle: Filottete. Turin.Google Scholar
Reinhardt, K. (1979) Sophocles, trans. Harvey, H. and Harvey, D.New York.Google Scholar
Robinson, D. B. (1969) ‘Topics in Sophocles' Philoctetes’, CQ 19, 34–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rose, P. W. (1976) ‘Sophocles' Philoctetes and the teachings of the sophists’, HSCP 80, 49–105.Google Scholar
Seale, D. (1982) Vision and stagecraft in Sophocles, London.Google Scholar
Segal, C. (1977) ‘Philoctetes and the imperishable piety’, Hermes 105, 133–58.Google Scholar
Segal, C. (1981) Tragedy and civilization: an interpretation of Sophocles, Oklahoma.Google Scholar
Steidle, W. (1968) Studien zum antiken drama: unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Bühnespiels, Munich.Google Scholar
Taplin, O. (1971) ‘Significant actions in Sophocles' Philoctetes’, GRBS 12, 25–44.Google Scholar
Taplin, O. (1987) ‘The mapping of Sophocles' Philoctetes’, BICS 34, 69–77.Google Scholar
Tarrant, R. J. (1986) ‘Sophocles, Philoctetes 676–729: directions and indirections’, in Cropp, M. et al. (eds.) Greek tragedy and its legacy: essays presented to D. J. Conacher, Calgary, 121–34.Google Scholar
Vidal-Naquet, P. (1981) ‘Sophocles' Philoctetes and the ephebeia’, in Vernant, J. P., and Vidal-Naquet, P.Tragedy and myth in ancient Greece, NJ, 175–99.Google Scholar
Waldock, A. J. A. (1951) Sophocles the dramatist, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Webster, T. B. L. (1970) Sophocles' Philoctetes, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Whitman, C. H. (1951) Sophocles: a study of heroic humanism, Cambridge, MA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilamowitz-Moellendorf, T. von (1917) ‘Die dramatische Technik des Sophocles’, Philol. Untersuch. 22, 269–312.Google Scholar
Winnington-Ingram, R. P. (1980) Sophocles: an interpretation, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Worman, N. (2000) ‘Infection in the sentence: the discourse of disease in Sophocles' Philoctetes’, Arethusa 33, 1–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar