How Neptolemus almost became a ξυνεργάτης

Abstract

In his tragedy Philoctetes, Sophocles has firmly tied the fundamental conflicts to the characters, more precisely to the triangular relationship Ulysses - Neoptolemus - Philoctetes. In the prologue, he sets up the relationship of the older, designing Ulysses to the young, executive Neoptolemos as a problematic one through ambivalent formulations. These traces laid out by the poet are crucial for the interpretation of the entire tragedy. The connotation of the term ξυνεργάτης (v. 93), with which Neoptolemos describes the role Odysseus has intended for him, has been rather neglected so far by scholars but appears to be of particular significance: Parallels in Euripides show that its divergent meanings ‘helper’ and ‘accomplice’ reflect the general conflict of the young hero in nuce.