BMCR 2006.04.08, Hanna M. Roisman, Sophocles: Philoctetes.

Hanna M. Roisman, Sophocles: Philoctetes. Duckworth Companions to Greek
and Roman Tragedy.  London:  Duckworth, 2005.  Pp. 159.  ISBN
0-7156-3384-8.  $22.00.

Reviewed by Ian C. Storey, Trent University (istorey <at> trentu.ca)
Word count:  1882 words
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Roisman (R.) has selected a particularly attractive play for her entry
in Duckworth's very useful series of companions to ancient tragedy.
Easterling had pointed out that this play had attracted more attention
during the 1960s and 1970s than any other play by Sophokles. This
critical attention has not eased off, for good reason, since
Philoktetes has a lot going for it: an unusual setting, a particularly
isolated and suffering Sophoklean hero, the coming of age of a
sympathetic young man, a plot full of unanticipated twists and turns,
and a deus ex machina to resolve the impasse (or is there?). Plus it
admits of a variety of readings, thus a godsend for the students of
Greek tragedy.

Waldock entitled his chapter on Philoktetes, "Sophokles Improvises",
laying stress on the unexpected plot twists that Sophokles adds to "a
dramatic subject of the second rank" (196), rather unsuccessfully so in
Waldock's view. Dramatic irony is rare in this play, precisely because
the audience is unsure of the truth of what is said by the characters.
R. takes a similar line on the play, not so much on the convolutions of
the plot-line, but on the ambiguity of Sophokles' handling of the myth