Philoctetes is a tragedy of surpassing human interest. It is played out almost entirely between a man and a boy, the former embittered by years of lonely exile, the second torn between duty and ambition and the instinct of an innately noble nature. Their changing relationships are portrayed against a background of terrible suffering and mean intrigue. The commentary, which is based on the translation, elucidates the action. The Introduction offers an analysis of the play, with notes on its background and manuscript tradition. Comments on staging are mainly in the end-notes, as this edition gives primary importance to the words and attempts to explain them in their context without undue philological annotation.