Deception, Ethics, and War Theme Analysis

At the center of Sophocles’s Philoctetes is Odysseus’s deceptive plan to trick Philoctetes into returning to Troy with the Greek army to sack the city and win the Trojan War. According to a prophet named Helenus, the war cannot be won without Philoctetes and his bow and arrows, which were gifted to him by the Greek god Heracles and never miss their mark. Philoctetes, however, despises Odysseus and the Greek army since they marooned him on a deserted island nine years earlier because of his festering wound, and he adamantly refuses to lift a finger to help them. Philoctetes’s intense hate for the Greek army means he can’t be persuaded, and his unerring bow and arrow mean he can’t be forced. Thus, Odysseus maintains, Philoctetes must be tricked if he is to be brought to Troy to win the war on behalf of the Greeks. Odysseus enlists the help of Neoptolemus, the son of the late hero Achilles, to trick Philoctetes, but Neoptolemus’s strong ethics and inherent aversion to lying make this task repugnant to him. Neoptolemus, however, agrees to Odysseus’s dishonest plan against his better judgement. After all, Odysseus is his superior officer, Neoptolemus reasons. Through Odysseus’s deceitful plan and Neoptolemus’s moral struggle with such dishonesty, Sophocles ultimately argues that deception is unethical in any context, even in war.

Since Greece’s victory in the war hinges on Philoctetes going to Troy against his will, Odysseus has no problem using deception to get him there. For Odysseus, the use of deception is justified because it will lead to success. Odysseus knows that it goes against Neoptolemus’s moral fiber to be dishonest, but he reassures him it is for the best. “But victory’s a prize worth gaining,” Odysseus argues, “Bring yourself / To do it. We’ll prove our honesty later on.” Winning the war is paramount to Odysseus, no matter the cost, even if he must abandon his morals to do so. Odysseus asks Neoptolemus to put himself “in [Odysseus’s] hands” for a time and forget his morals. “Then, for the rest of time,” Odysseus says, “Be called the most god-fearing man in the world!” Odysseus assumes that, like Odysseus himself, Neoptolemus can bend his morals a little to win the war and simply pick those morals back up again afterwards, but this isn’t the case for Neoptolemus. Odysseus also tries to convince Neoptolemus that lying is not dishonorable if it “leads to success.” If Neoptolemus successfully tricks Philoctetes into going to Troy, Neoptolemus will be hailed as the cleverest hero, Odysseus maintains. In other words, not only will Neoptolemus’s deceit be good for the Greeks, it will benefit Neoptolemus as well, so that deceit cannot possibly be unethical.

While Neoptolemus eventually agrees to deceive Philoctetes, he deeply struggles with the moral implications of such deceit, which suggests that lying can’t be justified after all. “Double-dealing is not my nature,” Neoptolemus tries to explain to Odysseus. Neoptolemus claims he is “most reluctant” to carry out deceitful orders and finds them “distasteful,” but he is given little choice to refuse Odysseus’s orders. Neoptolemus claims he would rather attempt to take Philoctetes by force, even if Odysseus claims it cannot be done. “I’d rather fail / In a noble action than win an ignoble victory,” Neoptolemus argues. To Neoptolemus, lying is shameful, and even if it does ensure that the Greeks win the war, it will not be much of a victory. Just as it looks like Neoptolemus has tricked Philoctetes into coming with him, Neoptolemus begins to falter. “I’m torn apart, and cannot say how!” Neoptolemus cries. He feels “disgust” for himself because he “betrays / His own true nature and acts against it.” In Neoptolemus’s eyes, winning the war is not enough to justify lying to Philoctetes.

Neoptolemus ultimately comes clean with Philoctetes and tells him the truth to “undo the wrongs that [he] did before.” In initially listening to Odysseus “and the whole of the Greek army,” Neoptolemus is manipulated into using “guile and deceit to entrap a man,” for which, Sophocles implies, there is no excuse. Such lying is immoral and dishonorable, Neoptolemus tells Odysseus, and he won’t continue to deceive Philoctetes. Odysseus reminds Neoptolemus that helping Philoctetes instead of the Greeks will cause the Greek army to turn on him, but Neoptolemus can’t be swayed. “I’d rather my actions were right than wise,” Neoptolemus claims. In other words, he knows that telling the truth will likely get him killed, but Neoptolemus is more comfortable with death than with abandoning his moral compass. Luckily, Philoctetes agrees to go to Troy after an epiphany in which Heracles orders him to go; in the end, it’s not deception at all that gets him to do what Odysseus wants, but rather honesty and authority. Sophocles’ argument is clear: even in war, deception is never ethical or justified, and moreover, it’s not an effective way of getting what one wants.