“I pity him, to think how, with no man to care for him, and seeing no companion’s face, suffering, lonely evermore, he is vexed by fierce disease, and bewildered by each want as it arises. How, how doth he endure in his misery?”
~ ‘Philoctetes’ by Sophocles (Richard. C. Jebb translation. GB5 - p. 183)
The play is about Philoctetes, a Greek hero who was abandoned on the island of Lemnos due to a festering wound on his leg due to a snake bite. The ship’s inmates could not bear his constant crying. So they decided to leave him on the island with minimal provisions, thinking he would die. Almost ten years later, Odysseus and Neoptolemus (son of Achilles) arrive at the island in search of him. It seems that the bow of Heracles is crucial to winning the Trojan War, and Philoctetes has the bow. Odysseus knows that if Philoctetes has survived, he would still harbor anger towards him and the Greeks for leaving him there and would not listen to their words of how desperately they need his help now. So he asks Neoptolemus to lie to Philoctetes and take the bow cunningly. Neoptolemus goes into the cave and befriends Philoctetes, saying he is also angry with the Greek leaders and is on his way home. He manages to get the bow before Philoctetes realizes that he was deceived. He begs for his bow to be given back, but they don’t listen. Neoptolemus has a change of heart, returns and gives the bow to Philoctetes. He tells him the truth and asks him to come with them to fight against the Trojans. Philoctetes refuses to go to Troy due to his hatred for the Greeks who abandoned him. The standoff is resolved by the divine intervention of Heracles, who appears and instructs Philoctetes to go to Troy, promising him healing and glory. The play ends with Philoctetes bidding farewell to Lemnos and going to Troy.
One of the key themes of the play is how Philoctetes managed to stay alive by himself on an island for ten years. It reminded me of the story of Robinson Crusoe, who also spent years alone on an island before he came in contact with other humans, including cannibals. Though both of these are fictional stories, there might be actual accounts of someone living alone on an island or someplace without human contact. How long can a human withstand solitude? Is there a psychological impact due to prolonged isolation? I’ve heard that solitary confinement is one of the worst punishments. It could make a person mad. Though in the past few decades, we are moving towards an individualistic society where people want to be left alone, they still are in a society where they see other people in malls, trains, roads, etc. Being social is essential for our well-being and mental health because evolution has made it so. Thousands of years of evolution has ensured that we succeed as a species by working in groups. In Sapiens, Yuval Harari says that modern civilization is successful because humans are the only species that are able to cooperate with each other on a global scale. Conducting events like the Olympics, where people from across the world participate, are examples of this cooperation.