in fabulous history, the son of Pean, was the faithful companion of Hercules; who at his death obliged him to swear not to discover the place where his ashes were interred, and presented him with his arrows dipped in the Hydra's blood. The Greeks at the siege of Troy being informed by an oracle that they could never take that city without those fatal arrows, went to Philoctetes, and insisted upon his discovering where he had left his friend; when Philoctetes, to evade the guilt of perjury, let them know where Hercules was intombed, by stamping upon the place; but he was punished for the violation of his oath, by dropping an arrow upon that foot; which, after giving him great agony, was at length cured by Machaon. He was afterwards taken by Ulysses to the siege of Troy, where he killed Paris with one of his arrows.