The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes Book

Seamus Heaney's take on Sophocles' Philoctetes is shockingly accurate and modern at the same time, retelling the myth of the marooned Greek hero with all the detail of the ancient myth, but in a distinctly individual and contemporary voice!

As in Human Chain and other poetry collections, Heaney excels at producing maximum effect with a few words, evoking a whole life story in a few laments.

The heroes symbolise different ideas regarding honour, honesty, duties and rights within a community. Is it ever acceptable to use lies in order to achieve a greater good? Neoptolemos, Achilles' son, opposes the opportunistic and experienced Odysseus. The goal is to win the Trojan war, and they need Philoctetes' dangerous weapon, and therefore all means are allowed according to the older politician:

"Odysseus:
But experience has taught me: the very people
That go mad at the slightest show of force
Will be eating out of your hand if you take them right
And tell the story so as to suit just them.

Neoptolemos:
Which boils down to a policy of lies."

What is right? The myth does not deliver any definite answer, rather a juxtaposition of different personalities' most common reactions to a situation that requires both sides to forget old stories and conflicts in order for a brighter future to have a chance.

The chorus, in its guiding function, starts the play with the ironical statement that all men involved in the major political meltdown of the Trojan War are driven by the same vanities, thus making it an eternal vicious circle of frustrated hopes and lost glory.

"Philoctetes.
Hercules.
Odysseus.
Heroes. Victims. God and human beings.
All throwing shapes, every one of them
Convinced he's in the right, all of them glad
To repeat themselves and their every last mistake,
No matter what.

People so deep into
Their own self-pity, self-pity buoys them up.
People so staunch and true, they're fixated,
Shining with self-regard like polished stones.

And their whole lives spent admiring themselves
For their own long-suffering.
Licking their wounds
And flashing them around like decorations."

Am I the only one who sees our real world of today in those words, rather than fictional heroes from Antiquity? The power and beauty of poetry lies in visualising those different characters' perception of the world: how do we tell the story so it rings true to all those self-indulgent heroes? They are strong, and proud, and in possession of dangerous weapons: we can't afford to make mistakes when approaching them.

Heaney chooses to introduce the action with a quote by Auden, summing up what he sees as the only way out of a violent dilemma of who wronged whom most over the course of shared history:

"You shall love your crooked neighbour
With your crooked heart."

Not ignoring the evidence of other people's crookedness, but loving them anyway, remembering our own share in it, is Heaney's suggestion, and it opens up for a future. In the end, Philoctetes breaks his isolation and sets off to a life full of new experiences, knowing full well that the island life has become part of who he is, but that he might add another layer to that by breaking the spell of hate, pride and injured feelings:

"Suspect too much sweet talk
But never close your mind.
It was a fortunate wind
That blew me here. I leave
Half-ready to believe
That a crippled trust might walk

And the half-true rhyme is love."

I will be closing my review with Philoctetes' final words, as I find solace and hope in his brave decision to face the world again!

Needless to say, I am a huge fan of Heaney! And Sophocles!