Philoctetes (,
Philoktetes; English pronunciation: ,
stressed on the third
syllable,
-tet-) is a play by
Sophocles (
Aeschylus and
Euripides also each wrote a
Philoctetes but theirs have not survived). The play was written during the
Peloponnesian War. It is one of the seven tragedies of Sophocles to have survived the ravages of time in its complete form. It was first performed at the
Festival of Dionysus in 409 BC, where it won first prize. The story takes place during the
Trojan War (after the majority of the events of the
Iliad, and before the
Trojan Horse). It describes the attempt by
Neoptolemus and
Odysseus to bring the disabled
Philoctetes, the master archer, with them to Troy.