When Heracles was near his death, he wishes to be burned on a funeral pyre while still alive. In the play Philoctetes, Sophocles develops the myth in which no one but Philoctetes would light Heracles' funeral pyre, and in return for this favor Heracles gave Philoctetes his bow. Philoctetes leaves with the Greeks to participate in the Trojan War, but is bitten on the foot by a snake while walking on Chryse, a sacred ground. For this reason he is left by Odysseus and the Atreidai (sons of Atreus) on the desert island Lemnos, with tragic consequences .Stream this video here.