Philoctetes cave,Lemnos,Greece

Philoctetes was the son of King Poias of Thessalia. One legend tells that Philoctetes was a friend of Heracles . When Heracles was fatally poisoned by wearing a shirt smeared with Hydra's blood, he built his own bonfire and no one but Philoctetes had the courage to light the fire. As a thank you, the Philoctetes received Heracles' bow and arrows, which were such that they killed everything he fired at. He is also briefly mentioned in Homer's great epic poem about the Trojan War, the Iliad . During the campaign against Troy, Philoctetes was left on Lemnos by the Greeks on their way to Troy. Was bitten by a snake sent by the goddess Hera to punish him for performing Heracles' services. The mythical king of Melivoia, when his companions left him injured by a snake bite on the island of Chrysi, located NE of Lemnos (now submerged reefs of Myths), lived in a cave and was cured with the help of a healing soil available only in the hill area of Mosihlos. There he suffered ten years' agony from his wounded foot, until Odysseus and Neoptolemus induced him to accompany them to Troy. Philoctetes were among the heroes who hid in the Trojan horse and got inside the city walls. When the Trojan War ended, Philoctetes went to the colonies of Thessaly in southern Italy, where he lived and died, having placed Hercules' weapons in the temple of Apollo in the city of Macalla, from where the citizens of Kotronas(today Crotone) took them and deposited them in their own temple of Apollo.