Philoctetes was the son of Poeas, king of Meliboea in Thessaly. He inherited both his father's skill in archery and, through him or directly, the bow and arrows of Heracles.
In Sophocles's play, Neoptolemus was sent to Lemnos with Odysseus to retrieve Philoctetes. The young warrior's honesty and sympathy won Philoctetes's trust, and he persuaded the embittered archer to rejoin the Greek army at Troy.
In Sophocles's Philoctetes, Odysseus orchestrated Philoctetes's abandonment on Lemnos, then returned ten years later to retrieve his bow by deception. Philoctetes's bitter resentment of Odysseus nearly cost the Greeks their victory at Troy.
Philoctetes, wielding the poisoned bow of Heracles, shot Paris with an arrow that festered beyond healing, killing the prince whose own arrow had slain Achilles.
Agamemnon, as commander of the Greek expedition, authorized the abandonment of Philoctetes on Lemnos after his festering snakebite wound made him unbearable to the army. He later sanctioned the mission to retrieve the archer and his bow.
Calchas prophesied that Troy could not fall without the bow of Heracles, which Philoctetes possessed. This prophecy compelled the Greeks to retrieve the abandoned archer from Lemnos in the war's final year.
The captured Trojan seer Helenus prophesied that Troy could not fall without Philoctetes and the bow of Heracles. This prophecy forced the Greeks to retrieve the hero they had abandoned on Lemnos.
Philoctetes lit Heracles's funeral pyre on Mount Oeta when no other Greek would do so. In gratitude, the dying Heracles bequeathed him his bow and the arrows poisoned with Hydra's blood.
Machaon, son of Asclepius and the Greek army's chief healer, treated Philoctetes's festering snakebite wound after the archer was brought from Lemnos to Troy. His healing restored Philoctetes to fight and kill Paris.
Podalirius helped treat Philoctetes after the Greeks retrieved him from Lemnos, tending the festering wound from Heracles's arrow that had kept Philoctetes exiled for ten years.
Philoctetes was retrieved from Lemnos when prophecy declared the Trojan War could not be won without Heracles' bow. He killed Paris with the poisoned arrows, fulfilling a key condition for victory.
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