Loss of Philoctetes

Jean Germain Drouais 1763-1788: Philoctète dans l'île de Lemnos. Musée des beaux arts, Chartres.

The long journey has already taken its toll, as the Achaeans have once more been punished by a child of Leto.  Philoctetes, the best of archers among the Achaeans, is gone. Angered at the murder of his son Tenes, a serpent of Apollo struck one of our own, Philoctetes, in retaliation. The pain of the incurable wound proved unbearable to the man, and the stench of it unbearable to the rest of us. Reluctantly, Agamemnon was forced to abandon the man on Lemnos. That magnificent bow, a gift of Heracles, which once struck fear into the hearts of Trojans, will now be a curse to the birds alone. Poor Philoctetes! The loss of the man and and the bow is great. Mark my words! We will find that the second sacking of Troy will prove difficult without that bow.