Sophocles’ Philoctetes: A Problem Play?

Abstract

Abstract Thus Oliver Taplin. I concur, and propose in this paper to examine some of the problems which the Philoctetes poses. This may seem a paradoxical aim, in view of the footnote attached to Taplin’s statement: ‘I am not persuaded that I should give up this sort of interpretation by M. Heath’s The Poetics of Greek Tragedy .. .’. But although, on rereading that book a decade after publication, I can see how readily it lends itself to misconstruction, it was in fact no part of my aim in writing the book to persuade its readers that they should give up that sort of interpretation. I wish therefore to begin by clarifying some aspects of the view of Greek tragedy for which I was then arguing. This will bring to light one important respect in which that view is inadequate; acknowledging the defect will in turn lead us to the larger questions that I have in mind in the present chapter. Readers impatient of such prolegomena should feel free to proceed directly to §II, where the discussion of the Philoctetes it self commences.

Cite this

Malcolm Heath (1999). Sophocles’ Philoctetes: A Problem Play?. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198130062.003.0008

@article{malcolm1999sophocles,
  title  = {Sophocles’ Philoctetes: A Problem Play?},
  author = {Heath, Malcolm},
  year   = {1999},
  doi    = {10.1093/oso/9780198130062.003.0008}
}