Philoctetes for ten years. Helenus, the prophetic son of King Priam of Troy, was forced to reveal, under torture, that one of the conditions of the Greeks' winning the war was that they needed the bow and arrows of Heracles. Upon hearing this, Odysseus and a group of men (usually including Diomedes) rushed back to Lemnos to recover Heracles' weapons. (As Sophocles writes it in his play named "Philoctetes", Odysseus is accompanied by Neoptolemus, Achilles' son, also known as Pyrrhus. Other versions of the myth don't include Neoptolemus.) Surprised to find the archer alive, the Greeks balked on what to do
The Cure at Troy The Cure at Troy The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes is a verse adaptation by Seamus Heaney of Sophocles' play "Philoctetes". It was first published in 1991. The story comes from one of the myths relating to the Trojan War. Heaney's version is well known for its lines:History says, Don't hope<br>On this side of the grave,<br>But then, once in a lifetime<br>The longed-for tidal wave<br>Of justice can rise up<br>And hope and history rhyme. The passage was quoted by Bill Clinton in his remarks to the community in Londonderry in 1995 during the Northern Ireland Peace Process, and by