Introduction. "Philoctetes" is one of Sophocles latest plays. It is unusual in several respects, with a small all-male cast and without a tragic ending. The text of this extract is taken from "A Greek Anthology", JACT, Cambridge University Press, 2002. The prologue and epilogue to this extract are also repeated here. Prologue. Philoctetes joined the Greek expedition to Troy. During a halt to offer sacrifice at the island of Chryse he was bitten by a snake. The wound festered, and the stench and his cries so disturbed his comrades...

Introduction. Sophocles (c.496-406 B.C.) was the second of the great Athenian tragedians of the Fifth Century B.C. He wrote some 130 plays, of which only seven tragedies and one satyr play survive. "Antigone", written in 441 B.C. is the first of these surviving plays. The play concerns the decision of Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, king of Thebes, to bury her brother Polynices, against the instructions of her uncle Creon. After the death of Oedipus Polynices had quarelled with his brother Eteocles over the succession to the kingship, and...