Philostratus the Athenian, Heroicus

καὶ τὸν Φιλοκτήτην ξυλλαβεῖν αὐτῷ τοῦ ἐν τῇ Οἴτῃ ἄθλου, τὰ τόξα τε ἀπελθεῖν ἔχοντα καὶ μόνον ἀνθρώπων γιγνώσκειν, ὡς χρὴ ἕλκειν αὐτά, τυχεῖν τε ἀριστείων λαμπρῶν ἐπὶ τῇ ἁλώσει τοῦ Ἰλίου· τὰ δὲ τῆς νόσου καὶ τῶν ἰασαμένων αὐτὸν ἑτέρως λέγει· καταλειφθῆναι μὲν γὰρ ἐν Λήμνῳ τὸν Φιλοκτήτην, οὐ μὴν ἔρημον τῶν θεραπευσόντων οὐδὲ ἀπερριμμένον τοῦ Ἑλληνικοῦ· πολλούς τε γὰρ τῶν Μελίβοιαν οἰκούντων ξυγκαταμεῖναι — στρατηγὸς δὲ τούτων ἦν — τοῖς τε Ἀχαιοῖς δάκρυα ἐπελθεῖν, ὅτε ἀπέλιπε σφᾶς ἀνὴρ πολεμικὸς καὶ πολλῶν ἀντάξιος, ἰαθῆναι δὲ αὐτὸν αὐτίκα ὑπὸ τῆς βώλου τῆς Λημνίας, ἐς ἣν λέγεται πεσεῖν ὁ Ἥφαιστος· ἡ δὲ ἐλαύνει μὲν τὰς μανικὰς νόσους, ἐκραγὲν δὲ αἷμα ἴσχει, ὕδρου δὲ ἰᾶται μόνου δῆγμα ἑρπετῶν. ὃν δὲ ἐτρίβοντο οἱ Ἀχαιοὶ χρόνον ἐν τῷ Ἰλίῳ, τοῦτον ὁ Φιλοκτήτης Εὐνέῳ τῷ Ἰάσονος συνεξῄρει τὰς μικρὰς τῶν νήσων Κᾶρας ἐξελαύνων, ὑφʼ ὧν κατείχοντο, καὶ μισθὸς τῆς συμμαχίας αὐτῷ μοῖρα τῆς Λήμνου ἐγένετο, ἣν Ἄκεσαν ὁ Φιλοκτήτης ἐκάλεσεν, ἐπειδὴ ἐν Λήμνῳ ἰάθη. ἐκεῖθεν αὐτὸν Διομήδης καὶ Νεοπτόλεμος ἑκόντα ἐς Τροίαν ἤγαγον ἱκετεύσαντες ὑπὲρ τοῦ Ἑλληνικοῦ καὶ ἀναγνόντες αὐτῷ τὸν ὑπὲρ τῶν τόξων χρησμόν, ἐκ Λέσβου, ὥς φασιν, ἥκοντα· χρῆσθαι μὲν γὰρ καὶ τοῖς οἴκοι μαντείοις τοὺς Ἀχαιοὺς τῷ τε Δωδωναίῳ καὶ τῷ Πυθικῷ καὶ ὁπόσα μαντεῖα εὐδόκιμα Βοιώτιά τε ἦν καὶ Φωκικά, Λέσβου δὲ ὀλίγον ἀπεχούσης τοῦ Ἰλίου στέλλειν ἐς τὸ ἐκεῖ μαντεῖον τοὺς Ἕλληνας. ἔχρα δέ, οἶμαι, ἐξ Ὀρφέως, ἡ κεφαλὴ γὰρ μετὰ τὸ τῶν γυναικῶν ἔργον ἐς Λέσβον κατασχοῦσα ῥῆγμα τῆς Λέσβου ᾤκησε καὶ ἐν κοίλῃ τῇ γῇ ἐχρησμῴδει.

and that Philoctetes shared with him in the labour on Oeta, went away holding the bow, alone of men knew how it must be drawn, and won brilliant prizes for valour at the capture of Ilium. But the matter of his disease, and of those who healed him, he tells differently. For Philoctetes was left behind on Lemnos, but not without people to tend him, nor cast off from the Greek army; for many of those who lived in Meliboea stayed behind with him (he was their general), and tears came upon the Achaeans when a warlike man, worth many others, left them. And he was healed at once by the Lemnian earth, on which Hephaestus is said to have fallen; it drives out diseases of madness, stops blood that has burst forth, and of all reptiles heals the bite of the water-snake alone. During the time the Achaeans were wearing themselves out at Ilium, Philoctetes joined Euneus the son of Jason in clearing the small islands, driving out the Carians by whom they were held; and as the pay for this alliance he received a portion of Lemnos, which Philoctetes called Akesa, since he had been healed on Lemnos. From there Diomedes and Neoptolemus brought him to Troy, willing, after supplicating him on behalf of the Greek army and reading him the oracle about the bow, which came, as they say, from Lesbos. For the Achaeans consulted the oracles at home too, the Dodonaean and the Pythian and whatever oracles of good repute there were in Boeotia and Phocis; but since Lesbos is not far from Ilium, the Greeks sent to the oracle there. And it prophesied, I think, from Orpheus; for the head, after the women's deed, put in at Lesbos, made its dwelling in a cleft of Lesbos, and chanted oracles in the hollow earth.