Philoctetes and The Aeneid

Stephen L. Cain

Latn-366-024

Dec. 15, 1995

The Son of Achilles

Neoptolemus, of the Aeneid and Philoctetes, is forever in the shadow of his father. He is known not for himself but as the son of Achilles. The gods have assigned him a duty: he must complete his father's war and fulfill the fall of Troy. In fulfilling his fate, Sophocles and Virgil portray in vastly different ways. Sophocles treats him as a reincarnation of his father, complete with the nobility inherent in his bloodline. Virgil treats him as a savage source of destruction. Even his name is differently used. Sophocles and Virgil call him "Neoptolemus," the "new war," but Virgil also refers to him as "Pyrrhus," or "fire." However, in both works, he is judged by other characters according to the standard of Achilles. So, let us examine the different attitudes towards the son of Achilles, the reasons for his two names, and his life in the shadow of his father.

First, consider the play Philoctetes because it occurs earlier than the Aeneid both in date of composition and because the actions in the play precede Neoptolemus' part in the epic. Sophocles shows Neoptolemus to be an honorable young man. This is to be expected. Sophocles is instilling a sort of nationalistic pride in his audience. Neoptolemus is the son of the greatest martial hero in the long history of Greek Epic. It behooves Sophocles to make him look good and to portray classical Greek virtue.

To this end, Sophocles refers to him exclusively as "Neoptolemus," meaning "new war." He is a new type of war compared to Ulysses; the Ithacan wishes him to lie, deceive and trick to gain the bow of Hercules from Philoctetes. For, as Ulysses says, "None should recoil when what he does brings profit" (Sophocles 111). Essentially, Ulysses believes the end to justify the means. Neoptolemus, with the seed of mainstream Achaean virtue in him, answers Ulysses' plan with words of honor:

Son of Laertes, when I hear a plan

which pains me, I recoil from acting on it.

I was not born to action false contrivance,

nor, so they tell me, was my father. I

will freely lend myself to take the man

by force, not guile: he has one foot; he cannot

by force defeat men such as we....And yet

I came to help, and would not willingly

be called a traitor. . . .

What are you asking but that I should lie?

(Sophocles 86-100)

Neoptolemus is forthright and a contrast to the accustomed methods of his commander. He even draws his sword against Ulysses to right the injustice he does against Philoctetes (Sophocles 1248-1258). Such a deed wins Neoptolemus great praise from Philoctetes, but in terms of his father:

Yes, you are right, my child; and you have shown

what nature you were born with. Sisyphus

was not your father, but Achilles, most

renowned of men when living as when dead.

(Sophocles 1310-1313)

The young man inherits the nature of his father, replete with classical virtue. Further, his virtue is not untested. Philoctetes is essentially a play about testing a young man with great potential. Achilles passes on the genes, and Neoptolemus puts them to good use.

On the other hand, Virgil paints a very different picture than Sophocles. Instead of brass and glory, he becomes bronze and slaughter; the Neoptolemus that ravages Troy is savage and pitiless. Virgil calls him by two names: "Neoptolemus" and "Pyrrhus." In The Aeneid, the son of Achilles fulfills both those names. Compared to Achilles and the protagonist, he is a "new war." Neoptolemus is not an improvement on the preceding generation. He has all the brute force but without conscience or a sense of the just. He slays the young and infirm along with the warriors. Neoptolemus kills children before the eyes of their parents (II.531-532). Where the soldiers of the Iliad were heroic and noble, displaying mercy, piety and almost chivalric duties, Virgil’s Neoptolemus is greatly deficient in these categories.

Rather than contrast Neoptolemus with Ulysses as Sophocles does, Virgil contrasts him with Achilles and Aeneas. The Aeneid shows how Pyrrhus, although he has the heredity of his father, definitely is not as honorable. Priam makes this unfavorable comparison between father and son:

'At tibi pro scelere,' exclamat, 'pro talibus ausis

di, si qua est caelo pietas quae talia curet,

persolvant grates dignas et praemia reddant

debita, qui nati coram me cernere letum

fecisti et patrios foedasti funere vultus.

At non ille, satum quo te mentiris, Achilles

talis in hoste fuit Priamo; sed jura fidemque

supplicis erubuit corpusque exsangue sepulcro

reddidit Hectoreum meque in me regno remisit.'

(II.535-543)

Pyrrhus doesn’t seem to care what Priam thinks. In fact, he bids Priam to complain to Achilles in the underworld:

...Referes Ergo haec et nuntius ibis

Pelidae genitori. Illi Mea tristia facta

degenereremque Neoptolemum narrare memento.

Nunc morere.

(II.547-550)

Virgil creates Neoptolemus in shades of brass, blood and serpent: "exsultat telis et luce coruscus aena; / qualis ubi in lucem coluber mala gramina pastus," (II.470-471). Further, Virgil says he darts out his "linguis trisulcis" (II.475). within the walls of Priam’s citadel, Pyrrhus is slaughter incarnate. His force is inherited from his father, but without the concomitant sense of honor that made others admire Achilles. Priam speaks of this when he says that Achilles allowed for the proper burial of Hector.

Unfortunately, Pyrrhus has no such respect for the dead. When he conquers, there is no compassion. The king of Troy is left for the carrion birds:

"Jacet ingens litore truncus, / avulsumque umeris caput et sine nomine corpus" (II.557-558). Nor does he have any respect for the gods. In the oracular and instructive speech at the end of Philoctetes, Heracles cautions the youth:

When you spoil the land,

remember this: to reverence the gods;

for of all things that is the most important

to father Zeus. Such reverence will not die

with men, but go with them in life and death.

(Sophocles 1440-1444)

Of course, what Sophocles begins, Virgil changes to suit another purpose. Neoptolemus rages through the citadel of Priam and, slipping in the blood of Polites, drags the king to the very altar of the gods and slays the old man (II.550-553). Pyrrhus, despite the warnings of Heracles, has no piety. Again, Virgil contrasts the profane Pyrrhus with the pious Aeneas. Pyrrhus kills on the altars, while Aeneas refuses to touch the statues of the gods with his gore-stained hands (II.717-720).

Virgil makes him out to be so grim and destructive for the same reason that Sophocles portrays him as a noble man: nationalism. By making the foes of the Trojans so gruesome and savage, Virgil evokes sympathy for them. By comparing the princely Aeneas with the rapacious Pyrrhus, Virgil instills a feeling of pride in the hero because he the founder of the Roman race and he is so unlike the destructive son of Achilles.

The poet builds up to the brutality and ferocity of Pyrrhus, as though to enhance his arrival and role as a destroyer. Virgil spends a lot of time with the echoes of Pyrrhus; all through the second book, there are reflections, hints and foreshadows of his arrival especially the snakes that devour Laocoon. This is to be expected, since the oracle referred to in Philoctetes destines him to take Ilium with the bow of Heracles. Heracles details this to Philoctetes and Neoptolemus:

You too, son of Achilles,

must listen: for without him you cannot

take Troy, nor he apart from you.

(Sophocles 1433-1435)

Fire, blood and snakes herald Pyrrhus, the fall of the Dardan city and the death of Priam. Virgil’s primary foreshadowing device is comprised of the snakes that kill Laocoon. They swim towards the shore:

...jamque arva tenebant

ardentisque oculos suffecti sanguine et igni

sibila lambebant linguis vibrantibus ora.

(II.209-211)

This passage is reproduced at the first appearance of Pyrrhus as he bursts into the palace of Priam. Virgil says that he has a tongue divided into three parts (II.475) and the light of the fire reflects from his bronze armor (II.470). His entrance as a poisonous serpent with blood and fire echoes very closely the arrival of the devouring snakes.

So, Pyrrhus is set apart from the his father and the equally noble Aeneas by his dark deeds at Troy. However, Neoptolemus will never be his own man. He will be forever judged by the standards of his father. It seems he is defined as "he who is judged by the standard of Achilles." Defining him that way suits the agendas of the respective authors. Achilles is almost universally admired. In the Trojan War, it is common knowledge that Achilles is the only one who can defeat Hector. The Greeks are lost without him. Some Trojans admire him, especially Priam. Even though he was an enemy of Priam, Achilles still returned the body of Hector for burial. Priam says that Achilles had nobility and was sensitive to the justice in the claims of the supplicant (II.541-543). Philoctetes, who hates almost all of the Achaeans, calls him "glorious" and "noble" (Sophocles 333, 336). So, Achilles is respected on all sides. The demi-god Heracles refers to him only as "son of Achilles," (Sophocles 1433)

With such a universal standard, Neoptolemus and his actions can be judged more thoroughly. The author’s political sidings in the Trojan War can be reinforced by presenting Neoptolemus as either similar to Achilles or unlike him. Positive actions are compared to his father’s while negative ones are contrasted. Sophocles allows him to inherit his father’s nobility: Philoctetes is not taken advantage of by the young man. Thus, the youth is shown as inheriting fully the nature and nobility of his father. Virgil shows him to forsake his father’s phusis. He has none of the honor that his father had.

Works Cited

Blundell, Mary Whitlock. "The Phusis of Neoptolemus in Sophocles’ Philoctetes." In Greek Tragedy. Eds McAuslan, Ian and Walcot, Peter. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Sophocles. Philoctetes. In Philoctetes and the Fall of Troy. Mandel, Oscar. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1981.