Odysseus Tragic Hero In Homer's Odyssey

In Sophocles’ tragic Philoctetes the Greek soldier Philoctetes was left behind by his fellow warriors on their to Troy to finally end the war after many long years of fighting. Philoctetes was left behind due to his injury, a venomous snake bite that has brought waves of pain upon him as well. Unfortunately the snake bite had made him more of a detriment than an asset, and as a result his fellow Greeks especially Odysseus decided to leave him behind on the desert Island of Lemnos. However after sometime fighting in Troy it is found that the war will not be won without Philoctetes and his bow, the former bow of Heracles. The play opens with Odysseus returning to the island of Lemnos along with Neoptolemus, the son of the famous warrior Achilles.

He is unsuccessful in doing so and agrees to bring Philoctetes back to his home in Greece, until the great Heracles appears high above them. The great Heracles speaks to them, “I am the voice of Heracles in your ears; I am the shape of heracles before you. It is for your sake I come and leave my home in the heavens. I come to tell you the plans of Zeus,”. Heracles here appears as deus ex machina, to offer a divine hand to the Greeks so that the prophecy may be fulfilled. He goes on to tell Philoctetes “Go with this man to the city of Troy. First, you shall find there the cure of our cruel sickness, and then be adjudged best warrior among the Greeks. Paris, the cause of all this evil, you shall kill with the bow that was mine.” Here Heracles acts at the divine guardian of Philoctetes, he advises him on how to heal his foot, as well as how he can achieve glory on the battlefield, by killing the Trojan prince Paris with Heracles’ former bow. By reminding him of the glory and spoils of war he is fated to earn from battle, Heracles is able to convince Philoctetes into going to