The Scene with the False Merchant in Sophokles’ Philoktetes

Abstract

The scene with the False Merchant in Sophokles’ Philoktetes (542-627) calls attention to its own contradictions and uncertainties and to the overall complexity of a drama in which it is impossible to be sure of the ‘truth’ – or even if there is any ‘truth’ – in the stories the characters allude to and tell. The scene does not resolve these contradiction and uncertainties or simplify the complexity of this ‘problem play’. Rather, the three-way dialogue of the False Merchant, Neoptolemos, and Philoktetes enhances the agnoia that Odysseus cultivates when he sends the disguised “Lookout” to assist Neoptolemos, and it challenges audiences and readers to think for themselves about some of the central themes of the play: means and ends, moral choices, deception and persuasion, and communication and non-communication.